


Space Oddity

by maithcop



Series: Space Oddity [1]
Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cosmic Entity, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Kids, Cosmic Entity Benny, Gen, Kid Benny, Mentions of Blood, Panic Attacks, cosmic entity, i cant believe doris doesnt have an ao3 tag whats wrong with yall, kid emmet, more tags will be added as we go along, unikitty goes by they/them because fuck you, vague reference to drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 08:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 28,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14052489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maithcop/pseuds/maithcop
Summary: When Emmet finds Benny, a young cosmic entity who has crash landed on Earth, it’s up to him to help get him home and keep him hidden from the prying eyes of everyone around him. Of course, knowing Emmet that doesn’t really seem to go very well, now does it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Space Oddity! Wow! It's been a year in the making and I've finally finished this fic for this AU! A basic summary of the AU that you need to know about: Emmet is a 12 year old boy living in Bricksburg with his mother, Doris. He finds a cosmic entity that he nicknames Benny, who is 10,000+ years old, but appears 10 human years old. Hilarity And Adventures Ensue

  It had been a nice afternoon in Rainbow Gardens, Bricksburg's local park. A young boy, who was twelve years old at the time, had been sitting on the bench under the central tree. He frantically looked everywhere he could, keeping an eye out for someone he had been waiting for. He saw kids laughing, playing, even a few inviting him to join in. The boy on the bench sadly declined. His friend was almost here, he told them, he had to stay and wait. It was only polite.

  He looked left, then right, then left again. There was movement behind him, grass and leaves crunching under approaching feet. The child looked behind him and saw his friend. "Hi, Mr. V!" The boy greeted as the friend sat down beside him.

  "Hello, Emmet." He was a man, looked to be about 70 or so years old, hair and long beard already graying. He always wore a tye-dye shirt under what seemed to be a white bathrobe, as well as torn jeans and crocs. Emmet didn't know why he dressed this way, he just did. He didn't mind. He always had a sucker in his mouth too. Green apple. Emmet thought it all made him look cool.

  Emmet always waited here in this spot everyday for Mr. V after school. Everyone thought he was a fool to wait for a man like this, they had always been scared something would happen to him. Nothing ever did. Emmet's mother knew Mr. V. They talked every morning by the cafe before she headed off to work. Both Emmet and his mother trusted him. "How are you doing this fine afternoon?" Mr. V had asked. Emmet began to swing his feet, which were dangling over the edge of the bench.

  "I'm doing good! How are you?"

  "Just great! Thank you for asking."

  The boy noticed him reaching into the bag hanging from his shoulder. "Your mother wanted me to give you this, since she didn't have time this morning." Mr. V said as he handed Emmet a small sheet of paper with a drawing of him on it. In beautiful handwriting, it read: 'Love you Emmet! See you tonight!' Emmet smiled.

  "Your mother said she'll be working a little later than normal tonight, Emmet." The child folded up the piece of paper and stuffed it into his pocket.

  "That's okay!" His smile was still spread wide across his face. "Thank you!"

  Mr. V returned a smile. "You're welcome, Emmet."

  There they sat for what seemed like hours, watching people come and go from the park, birds landing for some snacks, kids jumping from the swingsets. Eventually, Mr. V had noticed the sun going down and had reminded Emmet of heading home. Of course, the boy complied, as odd things had been happening around Bricksburg the past few weeks. Emmet's mother had asked him not to worry about it, and he didn't. In fact, he preferred to stay out of it entirely. The only thing he had to worry about was getting home on time.

  He stood up from the bench, collecting his things. Mr. V had given him an unusual trinket, as he does. This time, it had been a dollar-sign necklace much like one you'd find at a dollar store for children. Emmet thanked him and waved as he ran back home.

 

  Emmet memorized the path home at this point. Take a left from the park entrance, then a right at the second turn. Left at first, then right again at the third turn. Their usual spot in the parking lot had been empty, meaning Emmet's mother had still been working. It was dark out. Hopefully she would be home soon.

  He reached into his pocket to find their apartment key as he walked down each hallway. Door #14. Bingo. Emmet quietly unlocked the door, making sure not to wake any other residents who may have been sleeping. Opening the door, he placed his school backpack on the floor, leaning against the wall. Luckily, it was Friday night, Emmet wouldn't need it for the next few days. Closing and locking the door behind him, he pulled the piece of paper back out of his pocket. He flipped it over.

  'Emmet, I'll be home around 11.' it read. Emmet looked at the clock on the wall. 8:34. 'Please make sure you're in bed by 10, there's some leftover chicken in the fridge for whenever you get home from talking with Mr. V. Love you, honey!'

  Emmet, of course, did as he was told. He didn't want to disobey his mother's instructions now, did he? Of course not! He loved his mother, there was no way he was going to disappoint her.

 

  It was, in fact, 9:30 when he decided to head off to bed that night. He stayed awake for a little while longer, reading one of his favorite comic books. He felt his eyes starting to feel tired and set aside the book for in the morning. He turned off his lamp and snuggled up under the blankets. He felt that familiar sense of security under his blanket, the warmth of his bed slowly, but surely helping him drift off to sleep.

 

  Emmet awoke with a start. There had been loud rumbling coming from outside. What was that? Was he still dreaming? Who would be driving a big truck like that this time of night? The child looked over at the alarm clock on his bedside table. 3:42 in the morning?! Wait, that didn't sound anything like a truck! He could _feel_ the rumbling! The walls shook and the windows rattled, and suddenly all at once it seemed to stop. While the rumbling had subsided, screaming sounds could still be heard. He scrambled out of bed and ran over to move his curtains from the window. That was odd, the moon seemed to be moving in the sky- no, that wasn't the moon! Something had been falling out of the sky, and it was on fire! It was on fire!!

  Emmet panicked. Was his mother awake? How was she sleeping through this noise?! He couldn't hear his mother calling his name or even her footsteps. No, seriously, how was she sleeping through this?

  Emmet just about jumped two feet in the air as the silence was quickly interrupted by a loud explosion coming from the park area.

  The park! Emmet felt his heart skip a beat as he was weighing his options on what to do about this situation.

  He was pacing around his room. "Okay," he whispered to himself, "what might be a _spaceship_ just crashed into Bricksburg. Stay calm, Emmet, there's no reason to panic about this!" It was too late for that, he was already panicking and gripping at the edges of his shirt.

  His night light flickered. That caught Emmet's attention. It flickered once more, then went out completely. The air conditioning stopped working, too. As well as his ceiling fan. Not to mention-

  Emmet looked out the window. Several, if not all, buildings' lights have been going out! Whatever that spaceship or whatever hit, it must've been power lines or something. He weighed his options again. He could go check what crashed? No, he needed to stay home with his mother. Then again, he's only be out for a few minutes... He could take his bike.

  He grabbed a flashlight, spare key, and his slippers and robe. On his way out to the living room, he gently opened his mother's door. He whispered, "Love you, Mom. Be back soon."

 

  Bricksburg was quiet. Well, that wasn't entirely true, a few police sirens were going off near the center of the city. Emmet hoped he wouldn't run into any of the cops in town. He wasn't supposed to be out this late, as there was a curfew set by the president. He sped through the streets on his bike toward Rainbow Gardens, making sure to avoid any police lights he saw. He especially didn't wanna run into the chief, not here and not now.

  There had been a few close calls, but he was slowly and surely making his way there. He saw the familiar entrance to the park and- of course, a police officer had been stationed there. Emmet hid behind a tree close to the entrance, hoping the officer would move from his spot soon. Luckily, there had been quite a few trees in the park itself that Emmet could maneuver through and hide behind as he made his way to the center.

  He waited there for what seemed like forever before he heard something go off on the officer's walkie talkie.

   _'Jamison, you need t’ head back. Th’ president wants all cops accounted for, got it?'_ It was the chief. Emmet could tell from the accent. The officer did as he was told and left his position.

  Emmet moved in.

  Police talk.

 

  A massive crater took up most of the park grounds. Emmet slowly inched over to it, careful of where he has been stepping. He wanted to go home to his mother in one piece after all. He nearly lost his footing when he reached where the ground had suddenly dropped, tree roots jutting from the dirt. He took the small flashlight out of his robe pocket and turned it on, struggling with the low batteries for a minute. He pointed the flashlight in the direction of the damage around him. Broken trees, uprooted trees, trees on fire. The trees took most of the damage. Not to mention one of the swingsets, and the slide and-

  Oh no.

  Emmet's heart sank as he ran over to where a broken bench lay in pieces. The same bench where Mr. V would wait everyday for Emmet. "No, no, no!" He repeated, just above a whisper. Emmet ran back over to the crater, fists clenched.

  "Hey, what's the big idea?!" He yelled, quietly enough for no one but whatever was in the crater to hear. He slid down along the side of the crater to meet whatever was waiting within the smoke.

  "You can't just go around breaking park benches, what the heck?!" As he got closer, the smoke began to clear up. “You better explain to me why you suck so much, Mr. Spaceman, because if you don't, you'll have to answer to these fists!" He raised his balled up fists as intimidation.

  No answer came from the still settling smoke. Emmet scoffed and waved his hands around to disperse the smoke enough to get a clear view of what had landed in the center. "You're not even listening to me, are you?! I said, 'I'm gonna kick your-'" When the smoke had finally cleared, Emmet saw... well, what he saw certainty wasn't... human. It almost appeared to be _a child_. Whatever it was, it made Emmet stop in his tracks.

  It may have looked like a child, but where children like Emmet had skin, they had space-   _actual space_. Small galaxies swirled and stars dimly twinkled. From what Emmet could tell, he had been unconscious.

  Emmet didn't know how long he stared at him.

  "Oh..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmet takes Benny home. He has no idea what to do next but he can burn that bridge when he gets to it.

  Emmet paced around the unconscious being, unsure of what to do next. "Okay..." he said to himself, "I just found... an alien. That's what just happened right? An  _ alien  _ just crash landed in Rainbow Gardens-" Emmet turned to look at the being next to him, his eyes now wide open. He had been sitting up now, staring at Emmet, who froze in his spot. He didn't know what to do. He shouldn’t move, should he? He couldn't move. Both of them had been secretly engaging in a staring contest, before odd chirps and frequencies came from the being.

  "Uh... hello?" Emmet had tried to greet, slowly waving. All the 'child' had done was tilt his head. He must not have understood what Emmet was saying. He weighed his options. "Um, can you not speak English?" The being looked as though he squinted for a bit. His eyes were... nothing like Emmet had seen. They were bright white lights in place of where human eyes would be. No pupils, irises, or scleras. 

  "English?" He simply said. Emmet jumped.

  "I am sorry. I did not know." His voice sounded... weird. Emmet could hear a small bit of what sounded like radio static when he spoke. 

  "I-It's okay." Emmet responded. He didn't know what to say. This was... technically an alien that he had just found.

  Emmet watched as the stars in his skin swirled and twinkled. He opened his mouth to say something else before both of them heard voices coming from the park entrance.

  "Dobbins, are you sure you heard someone over here?"

  "Yes, I'm sure! Besides, security footage doesn't lie."

  Emmet looked around. Of course. Cameras. Why didn't he take those cameras into consideration?! He took off his robe and covered the being up in it.

  "What are you doing?" He asked.

  "Hiding you. We can't let the cops see you!"

  "Cops?" 

   Emmet stared at the being. "Yeah, cops. Those big scary guys out there." He pointed towards the park entrance. The chief and a few deputies had been stationed there now. Wait, did Emmet just see the chief?!

  Emmet continued to wrap up the 'child', now in a panic trying not to be seen by the chief of police. "I'm gonna take you home-"

  "Home?!"

  "Yes, my home!" Emmet noticed the being gave him a disappointed look. He opened his mouth to say something before-

  "Hey, who's in there?!" One of the deputies had shouted. They must have heard them! Emmet scrambled to get his flashlight and robe in order, the being wrapped up tightly, whimpering a bit. "Hey, hey, you're okay!" Emmet whispered. "I'm not gonna let those guys get you okay?" He tied the sleeves of the robe around his arms into a makeshift backpack and ran in the opposite direction from where the cops were.

  The city’s power slowly came back on.

 

  The cosmic child had been sitting on Emmet's bed, looking around the room inquisitively. "I have never seen anything like this before." 

  Emmet had been trying to move things around in an attempt to clean up his room. 

  "I can imagine why." When he had finished, he went over to sit on the bed next to the child. "So what brings you to Earth?"

  He gave Emmet a weird look. "Nothing  _ brings _ me. I just do not know how to fly." Emmet stopped him there.

  "Wait, you can fly?"

  "Not very well. The best I can do is simply float." The being looked down at the floor. Emmet decided to change the subject. "Do you have a name?" 

  The child thought for a moment. "I do not think you would be able to pronounce it."

  "Well, then... what  _ can _ I call you?" Emmet asked. The being just shrugged. Emmet thought to himself. "Hmm. What about 'Benny'?"

  "'Benny'?" He echoed. Emmet smiled. 

  "Yeah, Benny!"

   Benny smiled as well. "I like 'Benny'!" Emmet laughed, and Benny had mimicked him. 

  "Alright,  _ Benny _ ," he stifled a laugh. He was having fun with his new friend. At least he hoped they were friends now. "My name's Emmet. Emmet Brickowski." He held out a hand to Benny, whose smile immediately disappeared as he flinched. The other child's smile faltered a bit as well. "What's wrong? Do you not know what a handshake is?"

  Benny took his attention off of Emmet's hand. "Handshake...?" 

  "Yeah, it's like... when you first meet someone, you shake their hand as a way of saying 'Nice to meet you!'" Benny stared. Emmet went ahead and grabbed Benny's hand, placing it in his other. He slowly moved their hands up and down. "Up and down, like this!" Benny moved his hand along with Emmet's.

  He didn't stop. Emmet made an attempt to take his hand away from Benny's. "Um, we can stop now." The cosmic child released Emmet's hand. "Oh, I am sorry."

  Emmet laughed. "It's okay," he said, "You're still learning." He smiled and looked over at the alarm clock over on his bedside table. 5:12 a.m. "Guess I'm not going to sleep anytime soon."

  "'Sleep'?" Benny echoed. 

  "You don't know what sleeping is? It's like... when you rest for the night. You go to sleep and let your body recover from that day." Emmet gestured for Benny to move off of his bed for a demonstration and Benny did as told. "Like this." He covered himself up in his blanket, closed his eyes and pretended to snore. 

  "Are you supposed to make that noise with your mouth?" Emmet uncovered himself and sat back up. 

  "Well, I mean, some people do, but it's not really something they can control."

  Emmet heard footsteps coming from outside the door. That must be his mom. "Benny, we have to hide you!" Emmet whispered. He grabbed Benny's wrist, feeling nothing but cold air, and pulled him off the bed. "Under here." He said, motioning to under his bed. Benny gave him a confused look. "Benny! You need to get under the bed or my mom might see you!"

  "Your 'mom'?" Emmet groaned and quickly pushed Benny under the bed. "Sorry!" he whispered just as his mother walked in. 

  "Oh! Emmet, you're already awake! And so early." She said, fixing the sleeves on her shirt. "Yep!" Emmet replied, "Like you always say, Mom, early bird catches the worm!"

  Emmet's mother had been Doris, a mom who would kill on her son's behalf, and that's not an exaggeration. She stood just a little bit taller than her son, no doubt Emmet would be taller than her when he was grown. Emmet had gotten the height from his dad's side. Doris had curly brown hair that went down to her shoulders and it was obvious Emmet had gotten his brown hair from her. 

  "I was just coming in to give you a kiss before I head out. But I guess I can just do this instead since you're already awake!" Doris grabbed Emmet's face and pulled him close, covering his cheeks and forehead in kisses. 

  "Mom!!" Emmet protested through giggles. "I'm 12 years old!"

  "That doesn't mean I still can't give you kisses, Emmet!" She kissed him on final time on his forehead before letting him go. "Just be lucky I haven't put on my lipstick yet." Doris looked at her watch. "Which will have to wait- I'm running late!" She began to walk out the door before looking back at Emmet, who was slowly inching his way back over to his bed. "I love you, Emmet." 

  "Love you too!"

  "Bye! See you this evening!"

  "Bye!"

  And then she was gone. Emmet froze for a bit before hearing the apartment door shut. He relaxed and went over to the window, watching his mother drive off. "Okay, Benny, you can come out!" 

  Benny slowly came out from under Emmet's bed and pointed to his own face. "What was that thing she was doing to your face, Emmet?"

  Emmet stared at Benny for a moment. "Oh! Those were just kisses! She does that to let me know she loves me." All Benny did was tilt his head. 

  "My mom actually just left for work so we have the whole apartment to ourselves today!"

  "I am assuming that is a good thing?" Benny asked. Emmet responded with a nod.

  
  


  Patrol, same as always. They had been low on officers due to the night before, since several of them were stationed around the park. 

  "Chief!!" Someone had called after them. Luckily their window had been rolled down or else they wouldn't have heard them. "CHIEF!" They called again.

  The chief slowly pulled over to the curb where the call had been coming from and stepped out to greet Tucker Jamison, one of the rookie cops. He was much smaller than the chief, uniform one size too big. He was too scared of the chief to let him know. It'll shrink. His brown hair ruffled from running. He was panting. "Chief-" He took a breath. "Chief. We couldn't find anything out of the ordinary at the crater last night, or this morning. Mainly because there was too much smoke last night to tell, but this morning it had cleared up."

  Tucker stared at his reflection in the chief's mirrored aviators. He adjusted them on his face. 

  Bricksburg's chief of police- or rather, 'chiefs'. Brendan and Gabriel, given the nicknames Bad Cop and Good Cop by the precinct as well as the entire city. They didn't use them much. Officer Brendan or Gabriel was good enough for them.

  "Nothin' else?" He asked, his Irish accent apparent.

  Tucker shook his head. "No, chief. We're going to take a look at the park camera footage from last night soon, though, just in case anything was  _ 'out of the ordinary'. _ " 

  Bad Cop had nodded. "Thank you." He nodded and climbed back into the police car and drove off. Once he was out of Tucker's line of sight, he gave a heavy sigh and gave control to his counterpart. They didn't bother switching their glasses from aviators to round glasses while they were driving, but Good Cop  _ did _ have to take them off to see the road properly. 

  "Everythin' will be okay, buddy."

  'If the president finds out anythin' is loose in Bricksburg, he'll have our head an' you know it.'

  "All we can do is hope we'll find out what's goin' on soon."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad Cop and Good Cop feel like they may be onto something. Meanwhile, Emmet gives Benny a tour of their apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around as long as you have so far! It really means a lot! This is the first genuine multichaptered fic I've written, as well as the longest thing I've written in general, and I'm honestly really proud of how far I've come.

  Emmet practically dragged Benny around like a balloon. He had been idly floating along as Emmet rummaged through the pantry for some breakfast.

  "Do you even eat any food?" Emmet asked.

  "I do not think so." Emmet handed him a slice of bread.

  "Try putting this in your mouth and see what happens?"

  Benny did as he was told, swallowing the whole thing in one bite. Nothing seemed to happen. Benny shrugged as Emmet tilted his head. "Is it, like, still in there or something?" He reached his hand out to what he thought was where Benny's 'stomach' was. His hand went right through. He found nothing. "Whoa... That's so weird."

  “Is it really?” Benny asked.

  “Well, yeah, kinda,” Emmet said, “Humans don’t have stomachs like that… if it even _is_ a stomach.”

  

  Emmet made himself some breakfast and gave Benny one of his older toys to play with, it had been a water… ring… game. Emmet didn’t know the exact name of it, but Benny had been having a blast after Emmet showed him what to do with it. The child took a bite from his cinnamon toast, watching Benny, who was sitting across the table.

  "So tell me about yourself." Emmet asked, mouth full of his breakfast.

  "About myself? There is really not much to say." Benny's attention was pulled away from the toy.

  "Well, what do you like to do for fun?"

  Benny thought for a moment. "I do not know. Emmet, what do _you_ like to do for fun?" Emmet’s face lit up and he scarfed down the rest of his cinnamon toast. "I'll show you!" he said, mouth full and barely giving himself time to swallow.

  Emmet dragged Benny by his wrist over to the living room and sat him down in front of the television. It was a widescreen TV, Doris had scraped together enough money to buy it after the previous one's screen had stopped working.

  Emmet went behind the TV to plug in a few cords, Benny patiently watching. Emmet pushed a button on the TV and it flickered to life, startling Benny a bit.

  '-ver take me alive!'

  'Try telling that to my fist!'

  Characters on a cartoon argued with each other as Emmet went on a hunt for the cable remote.

  'I'd like to see you t-'

  "This show was never even that good." Emmet said as he changed the channel. He decided on a channel and changed the source of the television to something else.

  "You are not going to watch that?"

  "Can't give 'em views for something that sucks." He sat down next to Benny and grabbed a game controller from the entertainment center and pushed a button on the console it was attached to. It beeped and whirred to life, volume blaring over the speakers, scaring both Emmet and Benny.

  "AAH! THAT'S LOUD!" He rushed to find the TV remote to turn it down. "I hope we don't get another noise complaint for this!" He lowered the volume before the second startup screen came on.

  Benny asked, "Emmet, I do not know what we are doing."

  "We're playing my favorite games! My mom got them for me for my birthday last year!" Emmet set down the controller and grabbed the stack of games next to the console. "Take your pick, I can teach you how to play them!"

  Benny picked a game at random and they sat there for the rest of the morning, Emmet showing him how to play.

  


  Good Cop had been walking to the coffee shop later that morning, talking to another officer on the phone. "So you can get th' security footage in th' next week, right? ... Great. Thank you, Robert. Goodbye." He hung up and stuffed their phone back in the bag hanging from their shoulder. Bad Cop had been silently waiting for Good Cop to finish the call.

  'We need t' get that camera footage ASAP, Gabriel.'

  Good Cop sighed. "I know, buddy. If somethin' really did find its way to Bricksburg, we'd be in _big_ trouble."

  'I don' even want t' think about what th' president'll do t' us. Chiefs of Bricksburg Police lettin' somethin' like this slip through their watch.'

  "He's a strict man, that one." Good Cop didn't say another word as he opened to the door to the coffee shop and stepped inside, Larry, the barista, greeting him. "Morning, chiefs." He said, handing a cup of coffee to a customer. Good Cop gave Larry a quick two finger salute. "Morning, Larry!"

  "What'll it be?" Larry asked, pen and paper at the ready. Bad Cop had switched in to order, since all Good Cop ever does is order sweets. He switched Good Cop's round glasses with his aviators on their face. "Large coffee, black, and, uh, a croissant an' cinnamon roll for Gabe." Larry scribbled the order down on his pad of paper.

  "Long day, huh?"

  "It's goin' t’ be."

  Larry handed the cops their order as they payed. They thanked him, grabbed a fork from a cup on the counter, and sat at a table on the opposite side of the dining room. Bad Cop rummaged through the bag around their shoulder and pulled out a few files and reports from the previous night. The entire precinct was surprised that they could take that many calls at once. Bad Cop looked at his watch. 12:35 p.m. They were going to be here a while. Lucky for them, they had the time.

  


  "And this is my stuffed monkey! I've had him since I was six. He's purple! Which is funny, 'cause monkeys aren't usually purple. " Emmet showed Benny the wide selection of toys and stuffed animals in his room. Benny, however, had his attention glued to all the posters on Emmet's wall. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t listening. "Hey, Benny? Everything okay?"

  Benny pointed to one of them. "Who is that?" Emmet looked to where he had been pointing. "Oh, him? He's Batman! The greatest superhero ever!"

  "'Superhero'?" Benny echoed. Emmet ran over to take one of the action figures off his dresser and gave it to Benny, who idly moved the arms up and down. "Yeah, he like, fights crime and stuff! He's a good guy!"

  Benny directed his attention to another poster and returned the action figure. Emmet began fidgeting quite a bit with the Batman action figure before noticing that Benny had completely stopped paying attention to him. "Benny?"

  "Home." Benny had simply said. Emmet looked over at the poster that had captured Benny’s attention. It was one his mother had bought him from the space center nearby. The poster in question had showed a moon, as well as several stars and constellations surrounding it. Benny said nothing else and stared.

  "'Home'?" Emmet echoed. "You live on the moon?" Benny made a noise that Emmet could only assume was... a laugh?

  "I do not live on the moon!" Benny then moved his finger closer to the poster. "I live here."

  Emmet noticed the navy blue background, speckled with star designs and constellations. "In space? Well- I, uh, I mean that makes sense! Haha..." He stopped himself short after noticing the sad look on Benny's face. At least, it looked sad. "Do you miss Home?"

  The space child said nothing and nodded.

  "Do you want to go back? Back Home?"

  Another nod. Emmet thought for a moment. "I'll get you home somehow, okay?" He said with a smile. “I promise.”

  Benny's sad expression disappeared as he smiled as well. “Thank you, Emmet.”

 

  "Emmet! I'm home!" Emmet's heart just about stopped when he heard his mother walk in the front door.

  "Mom's home-" He was soon interrupted by Benny saying the same thing. "Your mother is home!" He had said with a oblivious smile. Of course, Emmet soon shoved Benny into the nearest closet in his room and shushed him. Benny’s smile soon disappeared as he was pushed into the corner.

 

  Benny heard the door shut behind Emmet, but as the room lost what little light was left, he backed up into a- what was this? Benny’s eyes glowed and the stars on his body illuminated the room. This looked like something that Emmet was wearing. He gently took it off the hanger and examined it further. Emmet and Doris could be heard chatting away outside, voices muffled by the walls.

  Benny identified the pattern as a crudely drawn moon in the shape of a crescent, stars, and an astronaut on the moon. That’s weird. These aren’t the shapes of the moon and stars, not at all! Emmet didn’t make this pattern himself, did he? If he did, Benny was going to have to give him some art lessons about how to draw the moon and stars. Not to mention, the astronaut was not drawn to scale! No, no, no, this was all wrong!

  Wait, how did Emmet wear one of these again?

 

  “Well, Emmet, I just want to let you know that you should probably shouldn’t stay out so late anymore, alright? Especially not without Mr. V, okay?” Doris explained, “There are cops everywhere and if something bad happened-”

  “I know, Mom. I’ll be safe.” Emmet responded. Doris nodded and kneeled down and placed a kiss on her son’s forehead. “Thank you, sweetie.”

 

  Benny soon heard Emmet opening the door to the closet. “Okay, she’s gone, Benny, you can come out now!”

  Benny slowly stepped out, now wearing the shirt that he had found hanging up in the closet. It had been a size or two too big, and reached down to his knees. He covered the shirt up with his arms as best he could. It didn’t work.

  “That’s my shirt.” Emmet simply said.

  “Yes.”

  “Wait, do you need to wear clothes?”

  Benny slowly shook his head ‘no’.

  Emmet tilted his head to the side. “Do you _want_ to?”

  Benny thought for a moment. “Well, Emmet, you do seem to hide me a lot. Maybe if I were to wear clothing like you, then I could blend in.” Emmet considered this before going over to his dresser. He took out a pair of jeans, ones he couldn’t wear anymore as they were too small. “I don’t think that could work. Considering your- uh…” Emmet gestured vaguely. Benny understood what he meant and pulled his shirt up to look at the stars and constellations across his belly. Emmet finished, “Maybe just a shirt, will be good, cause I feel kinda weird with you not wearing one.”

  


  The door to the security room slammed open with a loud slam as the chief walked in. “DOBBINS!” Bad Cop shouted. On cue, Robert- as well as any other officers in the room- nearly jumped with a yelp. In fact, Robert just about fell out of his chair, standing up to give a quick salute to Bad Cop.  “Y-Yes, chief!”

  “Ye don’ need to salute everytime, Dobbins.” He said, Robert slowly sitting back down. Robert Dobbins was still a fairly new cop, although, still with more experience than Tucker. He was a bit more built than Tucker as well, matching a bit closer to Good Cop and Bad Cop, yet shorter.  Bad Cop walked over to where his desk was and placed his hands on the table. “Did you get th’ footage from that night?”

  He stammered a bit before scrambling for the computer mouse, opening up a few files. “Yes, we got them right here.” Bad Cop simply placed a flash drive on the desk.

  “Put ‘em on here, we can look at ‘em later.”

  “Well, chief, there’s something that needs to be brought to your attention actually!” Robert pulled up one of the video files.

  “Some kid?” Bad Cop simply said.

  “Yes, we found him out past the curfew. WAY past the curfew, actually-”

  “What was he doin’ out so late?!” Good Cop switched in suddenly.

  “Well… I hate to say but if we move forward a bit…” The footage started to fast forward.

  The video began to show the same kid from before sneaking into the park grounds.

  “Wait- WAIT WAIT, stop the footage!!” Good Cop rushed. “Get a good screencap of his face, look through th’ president’s records of each citizen and get back t’ us. On th’ double, okay?”

  “Yes, chief! We’ll get to it right away!”

  ‘We’ll get that little punk soon.’ Bad Cop said.

  “C’mon, Brendan, can’t you be a little nicer?” Good Cop whispered back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmet heads off to school for the first day since finding Benny. The cops, however, do some more investigating.

  Sunday morning eventually rolled around and Good Cop and Bad Cop found themselves holed up in their office, looking over several papers on minors in the Bricksburg area. Those who were under 13, anyway.  Bad Cop had been flipping through papers after papers, the image of the kid from Saturday morning plastered on his computer screen.

  This kid looks like him, this one doesn’t. This one does, doesn’t, doesn’t.

  ‘Bren, do we really have t’ arrest this kid-’ Good Cop sleepily asked, just waking up from a nap. “We’re not goin’ t’ arrest him, we just need t’ find out what he saw in th’ park.” 

  Good Cop groaned. ‘C’mon, we didn’t even get breakfast this morning. Can’t we jus’ take a break and not worry about this today? I mean, it  _ is _ Sunday.’

  “NO!” Bad Cop just about yelled. He took a minute. “No, we can’t ‘jus’ take a break’. You know what the president will do if he finds out somethin’ is loose in Bricksburg?!” 

  ‘I know, I know, it’s just… a kid? Somethin’ tells me a boy his age wouldn’t cause trouble on purpose.’

  Good Cop had been way too forgiving for his own good. Bad Cop just knew that someday that would backfire for the two of them.

  “He’s perfectly old enough t’ understand what’s right an’ wrong.” Bad Cop argued. Eventually the files on the children in Bricksburg dwindled down to seven, then five, then two.

  Bad Cop was close, he could tell.

  “If this kid even  _ was  _ hidin’ somethin’, we’re not goin’ t’ arrest him, alright?”

  ‘Good, right, thank you.’

  “We’re jus’ going to bring him to th’ station and ask him to tell us what he knows-”   
  ‘BRENDAN, THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT ARRESTIN’ SOMEONE IS!’

  Bad Cop immediately interrupted him as he slammed a file down on the desk. “GOT HIM! THAT’S TH’ KID, GABE!”   
  ‘You don’ have t’ shout.’

  He began reading the file. “Emmet Brown Brickowski-”

  ‘That doesn’ exactly roll off th’ tongue now does it.’

  “Gabriel, be nice.” Bad Cop continued reading. “12 years of age, lives over on Jedson Street, in the apartment complex there. We better go pay this kid a visit, then, eh?”

  ‘I’d be more than happy to if it get us out of this office…’

  
  


  Sunday was shopping day. The only day both Emmet and his mother were both off on the same day. Well, it was shopping day for Emmet; he was given a list of groceries each week and is sent to the market down the street with $50 and a phone while Doris is left home and cleans up around the apartment. 

  Benny was told to stay in the back of Emmet’s closet while he was gone. Emmet wasn’t worried. His mother never goes into the back of his closet. Unless, of course, she was looking for blankets to cover up with in the winter. It was the middle of October, so that was highly unlikely. Cold weather wouldn’t hit for weeks, if not months.    
  Of course, Emmet didn’t really have enough time to make it to the market before noticing the chief of police walking- rather quickly, actually- towards him.

  No, Emmet thought, don’t come over to me, I’ve done nothing wrong I swear.

  “Hey, kid.” Bad Cop started. Emmet looked around not-so-subtly and hoped there were other kids around him. Nope. In fact, he and the chief were the only ones on the sidewalk. 

  “Hello, Officer Brendan.” Emmet started, trying to make his voice sound… not shaky, “How is your morning?”

  When good ol’ Officer Brendan seems ‘calm’, that’s when you know he’s angry, and here, he seemed extremely relaxed. Mainly trying to fake half of it so Emmet doesn’t freak out, but Emmet lived here long enough to see right through his guise. “It’s jus’ fine,” Bad Cop began, placing his hands on his hips, “except for th’ fact that somethin’ has been happenin’ around Bricksburg an’ the two of us are in a frenzy tryin’ to figure out what.” He sits on his heels to match Emmet’s height. His voice gets very low, and very serious. “You wouldn’t know anythin’, would ya, kid?”

  Emmet swallowed. “N-Not that I know of, sir.” Darn, knowing Bad Cop, there was a high chance Emmet had accidentally given himself away right then and there. Emmet searched Bad Cop’s face for a sign of ‘A-HA! I GOT YOU!’, but instead, his brother, Good Cop swapped the aviators on their face for round friendlier looking ones. “Well, alrighty, buddy. Jus’... let us know if you see anythin’!”   
  Bad Cop interrupted him and switched back in. “NO!” He got back into Emmet’s face, which startled the child quite a bit. “Listen, kid, we know you’re hidin’ somethin’, and we want t’ know exactly what that ‘somethin’’ is, got it?!”

  Emmet jumped. “I-I’m not hiding anything, Officer Brendan! I swear!!”

  Bad Cop looked to the side for a moment, as if listening to someone else. He grumbled, “Fine, kid,” and stood up. “We’ll let ye go.” Emmet nodded and started to walk into the market, keeping his eyes on Bad Cop the whole time.    
  Bad Cop did the same thing, although, once Emmet went in, he began to walk towards the apartment complex nearby.

  
  


  Emmet had school the next day, telling Benny to hide out once again in his closet. It will only be 8 hours, Emmet told himself, Benny will be fine. Especially with no one at the house. Does Benny need sleep? He was already in the school cafeteria, it was a little late to go check on Benny-

  “Hi, Emmet!” A girl interrupted Emmet’s train of thought. Lucy- or, Wyldstyle, as she preferred to be called- jumped up from behind Emmet and startled him. “Wyldstyle, I told you to stop sneaking up on me like that, please…”   
  “Sorry, Emmet.” She responded, calming down a little bit. “Hey, have you seen anything about what happened in the park?”

  Wyldstyle was a year younger than Emmet was, 11 years old, as well as one of his neighbors in the apartment building.

  Emmet internally panicked at hearing her sudden question. He opened his mouth to say something but was soon cut off once again. “I tried to go to the park yesterday but for some reason the whole entire part of the city was closed off!” Emmet subtly tried to step away. “No, I haven’t.” He said. Of course, his walking wasn’t as subtle as he thought, because-   
  “Emmet!” Wyldstyle shouted, causing Emmet to jump again. “Don’t leave when I’m talking to you! That’s rude! All I asked was a simple question…” Emmet sighed and stepped back to where he was. “I haven’t seen anything, okay?”

  Wyldstyle groaned. “Fine, don’t tell me then.”   
  Emmet groaned as well. “I’m telling you all I know!” 

  Of course that was an obvious lie. Not obvious to Wyldstyle, Emmet hoped. The two went back and forth like this the rest of the morning before the school bell rang. Just a normal school morning for Emmet.

  
  


  Back home, Benny had been alone. Emmet’s mother was at her ‘job’, as Emmet called it, and he had head off to- what was it, ‘school’, right? He cautiously stepped out of the closet, pushing Emmet’s various shirts and jackets out of his line of sight. Everything looked… safe. Of course it was safe, why wouldn’t it be. He was in unfamiliar territory and… 

  Not scared at all. At… all. Of course, Benny knew he was lying to himself, he was terrified, but he had to look on the bright side, right?

  Benny walked over and sat on Emmet’s bed. He just about sunk into it as he lay down. Wow, this bed was actually kind of comfortable. No wonder Emmet likes it so much.

 

  Benny spent the rest of the morning looking around Emmet’s room and eventually leaving it to look around the living room a bit more. Benny stared at the blinking light on the game console he had shown him before.  _ Oh, geez it wasn’t going to explode was it… _

  Benny slowly backed away from the console. Just to be safe. He looked back at the kitchen, then Emmet’s room, then the front door. There wasn’t really much to do here, was there? He was scared of turning on the TV in case it was as loud as it was last time. Instead, Benny listened to all the sounds of the city from outside. Cars were driving down the road, horns were honking, people were shouting. How could Emmet live in a place like this? It was very loud! He copied Emmet’s action from the other day and covered what could pass for his ears with his hands. 

  
  


  Emmet had been just about running home. There had been a feeling of anxiety in the back of his head all day and he just needed to get home and make sure Benny was okay. Hope that no one had shown up at the apartment.

  He turned the last corner only to find out he jinxed it. Emmet caught sight of the chief's police car parked in front of the apartment building and his heart just about stopped.

  “Crap.” 


	5. Chapter 5

  Emmet just about flew up the stairs to the front door of the apartment, scrounging around around his backpack for the key that Doris had given him. “C’mon, c’mon,  _ where is it?! _ ” The door must have been unlocked anyway, because when Emmet had given up and went to force the door open, the knob turned without any trouble. Someone must’ve already been inside. He carefully opened the front door.  _ Please don’t be the chief, please don’t be the chief, please don’t be the chief- _

  And of course, Emmet saw none other than the Chief of Bricksburg Police walking around his living room. Now, Emmet was sure his heart had stopped. 

  “Hello-” He squeaked. Emmet cleared his throat. “Hello, Officer Brendan and Gabriel.” The chiefs had just about jumped out of their skin at hearing Emmet’s voice. They turned around the look Emmet in the face and Emmet had been met with mirrored sunglasses. “What’re you doin’ here?!” Bad Cop growled. Emmet swallowed. “I-I live here, sir.”

  Well, Bad Cop knew that. “I just came home from- from school and saw our front door was unlocked, and-”

  “Yeah, yeah, kid, jus’ stay out of our way.” The chief pointed in a vague direction behind him as he turned back to work. Emmet nervously sat down on the couch in the living room. The chiefs finding Benny hiding in Emmet’s bedroom definitely wasn’t on his agenda anytime soon, but honestly neither was getting arrested. He needed a way to sneak into his bedroom. With any luck, Benny had already known the cops were here and was hiding out in the closet. Emmet hoped. Oh, God, he hoped. 

  Emmet watched and waited as Bad Cop dug his way through every nook and cranny in the living room. It wasn’t going to be long until he made his way to Emmet’s room. Especially not at the rate Bad Cop was looking. “Don’t worry kid, we’ll clean up this mess before we leave today.” He said, not skipping a beat. Emmet stood up.

  “I have to go to the bathroom.” He said. Without stopping, Bad Cop responded, “Sorry, kid, but you’re gonna have t’ wait a bit.”   
  “Can I go eat?”   
  “You have snacks in yer bag, I heard the bag ‘f chips when you sat down.”

  “My mom’s gonna be home soon!”

  That got a reaction from Bad Cop. He paused and stood up straight. “Kid, you’re hidin’ somethin’.” He growled. Emmet froze. “W-What makes you say that, sir? I’m not hiding-”   
  Bad Cop was looking him in the eyes now. “Why else would you be askin’ so many questions about what we’re doin’ and when we’d be done?” He kneeled down in front of Emmet and gave him an intense stare through his aviators. “Would you mind takin’ us to your room? Then, we’ll leave ye alone.” The child nodded.

  “I don’t think I can do that, though, Officer Brendan.”

  “And why is that?!”   
_ Because I’m frozen in place; because honestly, you have no right to be here when no one’s home; because I really am hiding someone- _

  “Because you’re blocking my only way off the couch.”

  Apologizing, Good Cop stepped aside.

 

  The two soon found themselves in Emmet’s room, Bad Cop making sure he went in first, just in case  _ that little rascal was hidin’ somethin’ from us. _ He found nothing straight away. But  _ Jesus _ , this kid had lots of storage. This was going to take a little longer than some measly living room. Bad Cop pointed towards the bed, Emmet taking the obvious hint to sit down. Drawer after drawer, toy box after toy box, and Bad Cop was starting to get frustrated with his lack of results. “BRICKOWSKI!” He shouted. Emmet jumped. “Y-Yes-?”   
  “What’s the least breakable object in this room?!” Emmet tossed him a pillow from his bed, which Bad Cop promptly slammed onto the ground and kicked against the closet door. Emmet heard a small whimper come from there and prayed that Bad Cop didn’t hear it.

  “What the heck?!” Bad Cop shouted.

_ THIS IS IT! _ Emmet frantically thought,  _ THIS IS IT, I’M CAUGHT. _ Emmet watched as Bad Cop opened the closet doors, and almost immediately, Benny ran out, making a beeline for Emmet on the bed. 

  “BENNY, NO!” He shouted.

  “WHAT THE HELL?!” Bad Cop yelled. The chief grabbed a nearby baseball bat, going for an attempt to smack this… kid that wasn’t even a kid off of Emmet when he latched on. Benny saw this and jumped off the bed, Emmet ducking as Bad Cop took the swing. “OFFICER BRENDAN DON’T HURT HIM!” Emmet cried, no doubt the chief didn’t hear him at all. Bad Cop turned to find Benny running towards the door and  _ grabbed _ at his arm. Of course, his hand had just went right through him, which had caused Bad Cop to freeze and reconsider a few choices he’s made. This just made him grab at  _ literally anything he could _ on Benny, hoping he’d have a firm grip on him at some point. He felt a heavy weight on his leg and looked down to find that Emmet had latched onto it. Tears in his eyes, he cried out, “Don’t hurt him please!” 

  Despite the kid on his leg, Bad Cop was still able to corner Benny somewhere in the room. He dropped the bat and drew his blaster, Emmet just about screaming. He ran off from his leg to stand in front of Benny and protect him. “Don’t hurt him! He’s just lost-!”

  “Stand aside, kid! It’s… it’s some…  _ thing! Whatever it is!!”  _ Bad Cop refused to listen, charging his blaster and moving Emmet out of the way. “We’ll take care of it.” Benny stared at the cop, wide-eyed in terror. Bad Cop pulled the trigger and Emmet hit the gun away from its target. Bad Cop yelled as the shot went out the window. 

  “Please! Just… just hear me out, Officers.” Emmet begged, going to stand in front of Benny again. Benny immediately went to latch onto Emmet again. Bad Cop returned his blaster to be pointed at Benny. “Kid, I  _ really _ don’ wanna hurt you. Step aside,  _ please.”  _ Emmet didn’t budge. “NO!” He shouted, “I want you to let me explain!” Bad Cop considered it, then groaned and let his blaster drop to his side. Emmet heard the whine of it as it shut down. “Ye got 30 seconds t’ convince us why I shouldn’ blast this thing.” Bad Cop said. Benny cowered behind Emmet. 

  “He just wants to go home.” Emmet started, “His name is Benny and he just wants to leave. Crashing here was a mistake and also  _ he’s just a kid like me _ . If he wanted to really cause trouble, don’t you think he would bring company?! He didn’t mean to crash on Earth, it was just an accident. 

  “Just let me help him go home.” Emmet and Bad Cop silently stared at each other for a bit. “It hasn’t caused any kind of trouble?” Bad Cop calmly asked. Emmet corrected him. “ _ He _ hasn’t done anything wrong since he’s been here. Not even by accident.” Good Cop eventually finally switched in. “Emmet, ‘m sorry, but we have t’ take him in. It’s th’ law-”

  “Nobody has to know he’s here! Trust me, Officers, all he wants is to go home…”

  Good Cop stared at Benny, who was still hiding behind Emmet. Stared at the swirling stars in his skin. He sighed. “No one else knows about him?” He asked. Emmet shook his head. Bad Cop switched back in and… seemed to be listening to something. Emmet could only assume they were talking to each other in their shared mind. He crossed his fingers and Benny mimicked the gesture. It seemed like hours passed before Bad Cop pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Alright. We’ll let you help it-  _ him. _ ” Emmet’s smile could end wars. “Really?!” He yelled. “Yes- just… keep that kid hidden got it?! Can't let anyone else find out about this. We’ll come check on you two every other day from now on, alright?” Emmet nodded, going to give Benny a hug. 

_ This is a terrible idea,  _ Bad Cop thought. 

  “Hey. don’t forget you have a mess in our living room!” Emmet scolded.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah…”

  
  


  “Y'know, someday, Gabriel, your kindness is goin’ t’ get you killed.” Bad Cop noted. Good Cop just scoffed.

  ‘Yeah,  _ okay _ , B.’

  “‘m serious. You're too nice for your own good, and in a job like this, it  _ can and will _ get you killed.”

  ‘You know what, you worry too much you Worry McWorryson.’

  Bad Cop had been Anxiety Central going into the precinct the next morning. Good Cop? He was fine, which Bad Cop couldn’t seem to wrap his head around. Officers had greeted them as they walked into the precinct, Bad Cop not even bothering to acknowledge them. Going straight to their office, Good Cop switched in and shut the door. 

  ‘We’re goin’ t’ have t’ tell the president at some point an’ you know it.’ Bad Cop mentioned. Good Cop shot back angry feelings at hearing that. “We made Emmet a promise. You know me, I never go back on a promise, an’ neither should you.” 

  ‘Do you not understand what Business will do t’ us if he finds out we’re harboring some…  _ alien?! _ ’

  “I do understand, but as long as we’re quiet about it, he’ll never find out.” Okay, now Good Cop was just being stubborn. Bad Cop just about yelled. ‘GABRIEL! ‘m just worried about what’ll happen t’ us if he finds out is all!’ Good Cop had just been about to say something before-

  ‘What’ll happen t’  _ you _ .’

  Good Cop froze, just taking paperwork out from their desk. ‘You know he hasn’t been happy with your work ethic. He’s barely allowing  _ both ‘f us _ t’ keep working. What’s he goin’ t’ say when his two best chiefs-  _ only _ chiefs of the Bricksburg Police Department are hiding some alien kid?!’

  Good Cop felt something hit the pit of his stomach. Okay, if he wasn’t anxious before, he’s definitely anxious now. Bad Cop was right. That guy really hasn’t been happy with Good Cop’s work. He was right about being too nice too, Good Cop felt. Oh, God.

  “Brendan, we’re makin’ a mistake.”

  ‘That’s what I’ve been tryin’ t’ tell you, G. We need t’ go up t’-”

  “But we can’t jus’ go back on the promise we made Emmet!” 

  Bad Cop could definitely feel some internal struggle playing out on Good Cop’s side. Good Cop collapsed onto their desk and groaned. “I don’t know what t’ do, Brendan.”

  ‘We’ll figure it out, okay? It’s goin’ t’ be alright.’ Bad Cop hoped anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

Emmet’s only instructions from the chiefs were

  1. Keep Benny hidden.
  2. Don’t let anyone find out about Benny.
  3. Benny stays home at all times.
  4. Call us if you need help.
  5. ****Do not hesitate to call us.****



  Five simple rules. Honestly though, Emmet really wasn’t planning on letting anyone else know about Benny anyway. The chiefs finding out in the first place was merely a stupid accident. That was honestly his own fault, he admitted to himself. But he didn’t really worry too much, just another mistake to learn from!

  Emmet held Benny’s hand while working on homework that next night. Benny quietly watched at Emmet scribbled various numbers and equations on his paper. Emmet had no idea what he was doing. And honestly, neither had Benny. He wasn’t familiar with any kind of ‘math’ as Emmet called it. All he saw were numbers and symbols.

  “Emmet, I am getting bored.” Benny spoke up. Emmet placed his pencil down and reached for his eraser. “I figured, but I _have_ to do this work, Benny. If I don’t I’ll fail school. I’m almost done, okay? Then we can do something fun!”

  “What will happen if you ‘fail school’?” Benny asks. Emmet answers, plain and simple. “Then I’ll have to go through this grade again. Meaning, I have to do everything _all over again!_ I’ll be held back! _”_ Benny noticeably tensed a bit. He didn’t want to have to wait for Emmet to finish his homework again! He tried to take his mind off the concept of having to sit through something like this again.

  “Emmet? What is going to happen to us now that the police officers know about me?” The space child leaned up against Emmet and rested his head on his shoulder. Emmet put down his pencil. “Hopefully, nothing bad. I mean… they promised not to tell anyone! That’s gotta count for something right?”

  “I suppose so…” Benny didn’t really say anything else that evening.

  


  Bad Cop visited that next day, just like he said. He had been visiting for the course of the next several weeks, making sure Emmet was okay and Benny was still hidden. They were. Good, good. The air was soon getting colder, snow threatening to show up overnight with the dropping temperatures. Emmet explained there had been a few close calls with Doris, but other than that, everything had been just fine. Bad Cop did some research in the library over time and found out that Benny had been known as a Cosmic Entity, a being made from pure space. Well, that seemed pretty obvious, but as far as Bad Cop knew and was concerned, the book he was reading was in the Fiction Books section of the library. The chiefs admitted they had a few close calls with their employer as well. Although, getting grounded by your mother is nothing compared to what someone like Business could do to you.

  It was late November now, and Good Cop had been sitting in Emmet’s bedroom floor. This visit wasn’t exactly scheduled, but what the heck, they could stand to visit Emmet three days in a row. Emmet had a small portable gaming console, it had two screens, but Good Cop didn’t remember the name. Emmet had been showing both Benny and the chiefs how it worked, what games to play, which buttons do what. It was soon handed to Benny who began to push buttons and somehow miraculously finished a level in Super Mario without Emmet’s help. Once it was handed off to Good Cop, however, he needed a little help. He had barely been soaking in anything about what each buttons do and how to beat the game. Good Cop complained about this not being like the Super Mario he and Bad Cop had played when they were younger.

  “Well, it's different now cause video games have changed. I read online that this thing has more processing power than an old NES…” Emmet began but Bad Cop soon interrupted Good Cop’s train of thought.

  ‘Are ye goin’ t’ tell him?’

   _‘No, Brendan, I told you we were never going to tell Business about this!’_

  ‘We need to at some point. You an’ I both know he’s goin’ t’ find out eventually an’ there’s nothin’ we can do about that.’

   _‘But Emmet doesn’t need t’ know about that.’_ Bad Cop was silent after that. He wasn’t going to argue with Good Cop. _‘’m not tellin’ him. Not about Business.’_ Bad Cop gave in and sighed.

  ‘Fine. But we’re-’

  “Officer Gabriel?” Emmet spoke up. “Is everything okay? You look kinda irritated.” Good Cop assumed he must’ve looked that way from talking to Bad Cop. “Yes, Emmet, ‘m jus’ thinkin’! Nothin’ to worry about, alright?” Emmet’s gaze lingered on Good Cop for a little while longer before returning his attention to teaching him all about the game. “Well, alright. Okay, so you see here, you have to step on these guys, but these ones over here hurt you because they’re spiny anyway so…” Good Cop returned his train of thought back onto what Bad Cop had said when they had first found out about Benny. He has been ever since. He decided to shake off the anxiety and focus back in on what Emmet was saying, Benny coming over to sit in the cops’ lap.

  Everything was going to be fine for a while.

  


  Everything was not going to be fine for a while. Business had called the chiefs in that next week and they could tell he was mad. The fact that the president had lived in a tower- like, _a really tall tower_ \- was actually pretty annoying to the cops. Especially with all the walking up stairs, going through security, walking up stairs, laser sharks, walking up even more stairs, and so on. Honestly, the chiefs were too scared of Business to say anything about it, so they thought it best to keep their mouth shut. Good Cop mentioned something about being nervous and Bad Cop mentioned something about ‘doin’ this a hundred times before’. Walking into his office had never been easy, and it was never going to be.

  Bad Cop opened the doors to the receptionist’s office and walked up to the front desk. A robot had been stationed there, waiting for visitors to come in. The cop strode up to the desk, standing tall and proud, or at least, the best he _could_ look just enough to fool the robot guards around the room. In reality, they were both nervous as all hell. The robot behind the desk didn’t notice them at first, seeing as they had an audio sensing system installed rather than proper visual optics. Business sure did have a thing for audio. Bad Cop cleared his throat and the robot looked up. Their name tag read ‘Velma Staplebot’.

  “Gabriel and Brendan here for a 1:35pm with President Business.” He said, fidgeting with a pen on the desk.

  ‘OKAY. LET ME NOTIFY HIM OF YOUR ARRIVAL.’

  Then Bad Cop waited. It wasn’t supposed to be much of a long wait, seeing as they were the only ones in there. Of course, knowing receptionists as well as they did, it sure did take a while. Several minutes passed before Velma spoke up again.

  ‘I AM SORRY, BUT PRESIDENT BUSINESS IS NOT HERE AT THE MOMENT.’ They said. Bad Cop just stared. “How can he schedule an appointment with us if he wasn’t even goin’ to be here?!”

  ‘I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU SAID.’ Bad Cop groaned. ‘YOU MAY CALL PRESIDENT BUSINESS ON HIS PERSONAL CELL.’ Velma then handed the cop the phone of the receiver on the desk. Taking it with an annoyed sigh, Bad Cop held it up to his ear, Velma dialing the number. It rang once, then twice, then a third time before-

   _‘President Business.’_ Bad Cop heard on the other end. Both his and Good Cop’s anxiety spiked. _‘How may I help you?’_

  Bad Cop swallowed. “Sir, we came t’ your office for our appointment-”

   _‘Brendan, I’m not even over there!’_

  “I understand, but why would you set up an appointment for us t’ meet you if you weren't goin’ to be here?” Bad Cop did his best to keep his voice calm.

 _‘I don’t see why you're questioning_ me _,_ _I’m the one who should be questioning_ you _about why you haven’t found whatever abomination CRASH LANDED IN BRICKSBURG SEVERAL WEEKS AGO!’_ Bad Cop winced at the sudden shouting in his ear. “Sir, we-”

   _‘I get my_ best _police team and my_ best _police chiefs on the job and none of you can find whatever thing crashed into the biggest city in the state?!!’_ Business just about screamed that time. He was _not_ happy. _‘Either you find out whatever crashed there in the next week or I_ will _have you fired from your position. That’s not a threat, Brendan,_ it’s a promise. _’_

Bad Cop took a breath. “Yes, sir.”

   _‘Actually… I remember seeing something that… concerns me. It has to do with a certain_ someone's _cell phone.’_ Bad Cop’s heart just about leaped into his throat. _He had completely forgotten about the tracking device in their phone._ Every visit to Emmet, _Business saw._ Bad Cop bit down on his tongue to keep from yelling or panicking. Business continued, _‘There have been a lot more frequent visits to this one apartment. Your visits began around the time of the crash, did they not? Now, I could be wrong, and some random kid hijacked your cell and took it home, or you’re hiding something.’_

  “S-Sir please, you’re jumpin’ to conclusions-” Good Cop switched in, hoping to hide the lie a bit better than how Bad Cop was planning. ‘ _I don’t know, Brendan, it seems a little suspicious to me. Especially in this day and age, you never really know who to truly trust anymore, now do you?’_ Switching in was a mistake, because at that moment, Good Cop felt as though he was going to panic as well. _‘Either you turn in whatever creature you’re hiding, or I’ll personally take care of_ it _and_ you _myself, understand?!’_

  “Yes, sir.” Business hung up. Good Cop handed the phone back to Velma, left the building, and just about slammed their head against the brick wall outside.

  “Christ.” He sighed. “We need to warn Emmet about this.”

  ‘An’ fast.’

  


  Emmet was stuck in school that day, doing boring school work like always. Who even needed math?! Math was stupid. Emmet thought about the possibility of getting the chiefs to arrest math. Math sucked-

  “Emmet?” The teacher called. Emmet’s gaze shot up to the board up front. “Could you read number seven for the class?” They asked. Emmet glanced down to his book. He opened his mouth to start reading before the PA system turned on.

   _‘May we get Emmet Brickowski to the front office please? He’s being signed out.’_

  Saved by the bell- er, PA system. He gathered up his things and head out to the front office. This had become the norm for Emmet, getting signed out an hour or two early, since this was always Doris’ day off.

  Of course, when he got there, he definitely didn’t expect to see the chiefs.

  “Uh…” Was all he could say. Good Cop gently grabbed Emmet’s wrist and headed him out to the police cruiser outside without another word. Once they were both in there, Good Cop started talking.

  “The President knows, Emmet. Or- He doesn’t know yet, but he suspects that we’re hidin’ Benny-”  
  “How did you get clearance to sign me out?” Emmet interrupts. Good Cop handed him a slip of paper with a fake note and signature. ‘Please allow Officer Gabriel and/or Brendan to sign Emmet out. I’m a bit too busy to pick him up myself. -Doris’

  “Let’s jus’ say we had to pull a few strings.” He stuffs the note back in his pocket. “There’s no time for that, though! We need t’ get t’ your apartment right away!”

  With Emmet in the passenger’s seat and Bad Cop at the wheel, they just about sped through Bricksburg. Knowing Business, he’s already sent out a robot squad to look through the apartment. The cops knew there was a tiny sliver of hope that he hadn’t. It wasn’t long since he last talked to them, it’s only logical!

  But then again, once they turned the last corner, what they saw made Bad Cop swear under his breath in a language Emmet didn’t recognize.

  Robots surrounding the building, and, by the looks of it, just finishing up their work. They all clamored into two different police cars and drove off. Bad Cop looked over at Emmet, who had a terrified expression on his face.

  “My mom was home.” Emmet just about whispered. They both _jumped_ out of the cruiser and _ran_ to the building and just about flew up the stairs to the apartment. Bad Cop kicked open the door and the sight they saw was devastating. Pictures broken on the ground after falling off the walls, TV destroyed and flat on the ground. Everything was ransacked way more than when the chiefs had searched. Emmet ran from room to room, calling out names and gasping at turned over furniture. Good Cop picked up a picture frame off the ground, showing a picture of Emmet and Doris sharing ice cream at a local cafe.

  Emmet calmly walked back into the living room, tears running down his cheeks.

  “I can’t find Benny or my mom…”


	7. Chapter 7

  Benny woke up in a dark room. Darker than Emmet’s closet, he could tell. He could hear noises echo in the distance. Wherever he was he could feel it was… cold. He glowed dimly against the walls of the small room he was in. He didn’t have much room to move around, if at all. He tried to glow a bit brighter. The small room illuminated a bit more, and all Benny could see were three metal walls and one glass one. The chatter of other… someones could be heard once Benny created some kind of light source. He looked out through the glass and saw there was a larger room outside of the small room he had been in. He tapped once, then twice on the glass. “Hello?” He called out. 

  “Hello!!” A cheery voice said to his right. He jumped and turned his head toward the voice, but was met with one of the metal walls. “Nice to finally hear you’re awake!” It said again. Benny couldn’t see who was talking, but his best bet was to respond to them and hope he got some ideas about what was going on. “Who are you?”

  “Oh, I’ve been called many things by many different people, but you may call me Princess Unikitty! Or just ‘Unikitty’ if you like!” They responded. Benny didn’t understand what that name was supposed to mean, but he wasn’t about to question them. “What do people call  _ you _ ?” They asked in return.

  “I am Benny. That is what Emmet named me anyway.” Benny answered. 

  “It’s nice to meet you, Benny!” Benny could  _ hear _ Unikitty smiling. Whoever they were, they sure had a positive attitude for the situation they were in. Whatever it was. 

  “It's nice to see a newcomer in here after all this time! All these guys have gotten boring to talk to.” They laughed before continuing, “It doesn’t matter, we have lots of time to get to know each other! Depending on how long your life span is anyway.” Benny interrupted them. 

  “How long has everyone been in here?”

  “Eh, I dunno. I lost track for me at about… 8 and a half years!”

_ 8 and a half years?! _ To Benny, that didn’t feel like long, but he had a feeling that, to everyone else in here and Emmet and the chiefs, those 8 and a half years felt like an eternity.

  “I must get back to Emmet.” Benny stated after a while. He could hear purring coming from wherever Unikitty was. “You sure do talk a lot about this Emmet guy!” They giggled. Benny looked out through the glass. 

  “Of course. He is going to help me get back home.”

  “Oh? Where is it that you come from? You see, me, I come from somewhere in the clouds. Took on somewhat of a physical form when I came down to Earth to  _ check the place out! _ ” Their tone started to change from a happy one, to a more… frustrated one. “But then some really mean guys found me and put me in a stupid cage!! They weren't friendly  _ at all!!! _ I tried to change out of my physical form, but I just couldn't! Everyone up in the clouds lied to me about humans on Earth being nice people!” They just about screamed, fire jutting out from their cage through the air openings, far enough and bright enough for Benny to see. He heard panting and Unikitty immediately went back to their nicer tone of voice. “Sorry, I got a little carried away there! So where do you come from again?” With their previous tone of voice, Benny was scared to say the wrong thing at this point. “I come from a far off galaxy in space.” Benny gestured above him, despite the fact he was pretty sure Unikitty couldn’t even see him.

  “Ooh! An alien, huh? We haven’t gotten one of  _ those _ in a while!” They said. “We have tons of aliens here! Duplos, Bionicle, all those other things. So what brought you to Earth?”

  Benny responded the same way he did Emmet. “I did not mean to come to Earth. Officer Gabriel said I had ‘crash-landed’.”

  “Ohh, so it was an accident, huh? So who’s-”

  The doors in the larger room slammed open. Light seeped in through the open door, allowing Benny to see a little bit more of the room. There had been a control panel in the very center, which a man who had just walked in, approached. He hadn’t been very tall, wore a gray suit and tie, and was accompanied by some police bots. The police bots began talking to him, voices echoing throughout the large room.

  ‘PRESIDENT BUSINESS WE-’

  The man- Business interrupted them. “I  _ told _ you all countless times!” He started in an annoyed tone. “Call me  _ Lord _ Business, it’s much cooler.”

  ‘YES, LORD BUSINESS. SIR, WE WILL STAND GUARD.’ 

  “Good, now…” Business pushed a button in the center of the control panel. “Let’s see who we got here.”

  The generators in the room hummed to life, bright lights illuminating everything. It was almost blinding compared to the former . A few more buttons were pressed and the lights in the room dimmed, a spotlight shining on Benny’s cage. Business held his hands behind his back and quietly walked over to Benny. The height he was at didn’t nearly match Business, but it had still been close enough to see the ugly look the president had been giving him. 

  “Gotcha.” 

  
  


  The chiefs took Emmet to their home that night, seeing as a boy his age couldn’t stay home alone indefinitely. Emmet sniffled and cried the entire way there and eventually fell asleep in the passenger seat of the police cruiser. Pulling into their driveway, Good Cop said what they were all thinking.

  ‘We’re really in trouble now, aren’t we?’ Bad Cop sighed.

  “Yeah. We are.” Bad Cop parked their car and took the keys from the ignition. He took a breath. 

  ‘’m scared for Emmet. Knowing Business, there’s no tellin’ what would happen to his mother.’ Bad Cop said nothing in return, stepped out of the car, and took Emmet inside.

 

  Emmet slept on the couch for most of the night while the cops cooked a meal for him. Just enough food to get  _ something _ in his stomach. They could’ve sworn they heard Emmet crying in his sleep and their heart ached. 

  “Poor kid.” Good Cop said, quietly. 

  ‘Why did we even agree t’ helpin’ this kid out. He would’ve been better off without us interferin’, don’t you think?’ Bad Cop said. 

  “I don’ know, okay. I thought we’d end up doin’ the right thing by protectin’ him, but…” Good Cop sighed. “Business is unpredictable, Brendan. I didn’t want him to hurt Emmet.” 

  The two were silent the rest of time they were cooking.

 

  Emmet woke up to a savory smell coming from the kitchen. His head perked up. “Mom?!” No answer. He took a minute to evaluate where he was and what time it had been. He’d never seen this place before. Two couches, picture frames on the wall and side tables. Whoever’s house this was it had a pretty impressive entertainment system, stocked with a variety of sci-fi and action movies. 

  Emmet threw his legs over the edge of the couch he was laying on.

  “Oh, Emmet! You’re awake!” A voice came from the kitchen. Shortly after, Good Cop walked out into the living room with a plate of food. He placed it onto the coffee table in front of the couch, as well as a glass of milk. “Try to eat if you can, alright?”

  Emmet stared at the plate of food. “Where am I?” He asked, looking up at the cops. 

  “We brought you to our home. Just to stay here until you have your mother back to take care of you, Emmet.” Good Cop explained. Emmet stayed silent a moment, letting the reality of the situation sink in. He nodded and took the plate of food. The cops sat down on the couch next to him and grabbed a remote. 

  “Would you like to watch something on TV?” Emmet shook his head ‘no.’ The silence dragged on once again as Emmet slowly started to eat. After a few bites, he spoke up. 

  “We need to go get Mom and Benny.” His voice was starting to break again. Good Cop pulled him into a gentle hug as Emmet began to cry again. “I want my mom…”

  Good Cop gently stroked Emmet’s back. “I know, Emmet. I know.”

  
  


  Emmet somehow ended up sleeping until noon that next day, soft blanket covering him up on the couch. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the sunlight peer in through the curtains. He nuzzled into the warmth of the blanket. It felt as though someone had just pulled it out of the dryer. Good Cop soon walked in, holding what Emmet could assume to be tea, or something. He sat over on the other couch, turning the TV on and watching some show Emmet had never seen. He shifted and Good Cop directed his attention to him. 

  “Emmet? Are you awake?” He asked. 

  “No.” Emmet answered. Good Cop stood up and walked over to Emmet. 

  “I highly doubt that.” Emmet had covered his face and Good Cop gently uncovered it. “How are you feeling, Emmet?” 

  “I’m fine.” Emmet didn’t sound fine, but Good Cop didn’t seem to want to pressure him any more. 

  “Would you like some breakfast or anything?” Good Cop asked. “I made some eggs an’ bacon this morning, I could go ahead an’ heat them up.” Emmet nodded. 

  “Yes, please.” He said, sitting up. Good Cop helped wrap the blanket around his shoulders and got up to walk to the kitchen. Emmet quietly watched the channel Good Cop had left it on, and after a while, asked him if he could change the channel. Soon the TV had found itself switched to a channel for children’s programming. Bad Cop had been grumbling in the back of their mind at the theme songs.

  Eventually, Good Cop emerged from the kitchen, holding a small plate of eggs and bacon. Emmet took a bite and his eyes immediately lit up. “This is really good!” He said, a small smile on his face. 

  “Aww… thank you, Emmet!” Good Cop said. Emmet soon finished up his breakfast and gave the plate back to the chiefs. Silence stretched on for a bit.

  “When are we going to go find Mom and Benny?” Emmet asked. Sighing, Good Cop stood up from the couch. 

  “I don’t know, Emmet.” He continued, walking to the kitchen, motioning for Emmet to follow, and he did. “To even  _ begin _ thinkin’ about getting jus’ your mother back, we’d need some kind of plan to sneak into th’ president’s office and look for her. And that alone won’t be easy. Gettin’ both of ‘em back will be even harder. We jus’ don’t know if we’d be able to pull anythin’ off, is all.” Good Cop placed the plate in the sink and sighed. Bad Cop took control. 

  “President Business isn’t a very forgivin’ man, Emmet, we’ll tell you that right now. He may seem like a nice person… but he’s  _ not _ . What he could do to us if he finds us in his office tower, lookin’ for your mother and Benny, there’s honestly no tellin’. He  _ scares us,  _ Emmet.”

_  That… couldn’t be right, could it?  _ Emmet thought,  _ These guys are the chiefs of police! They’re not supposed to be afraid of anything! _

  Emmet started to have doubts of ever getting them back.

  “We sure as hell could try to pull this off, Emmet, but… at this point, protectin’ Benny an’ rescuin’ your mother is more of a suicide mission than anythin’. We’d get  _ lucky _ at best with this. ‘m sorry.”

  Emmet stayed silent, anxiety threatening to spill out through tears. He took a breath to calm himself. He simply responded with, “Okay.” He went to sit back on the couch in the living room, Bad Cop following, and sitting down next to him. 

  “So we’re never going to get them out of there? Benny’s gonna get killed and I’m never gonna see my mom again…” Emmet’s voice began to break as Bad Cop pulled him into a hug, Emmet hugged him back, gripping at the back of his shirt and sobbing into his chest. Bad Cop shushed him and patted Emmet’s back, trying to calm him down. He never wanted this. He never wanted his mother to get hurt. He just wanted to protect Benny.

_ He just wanted to protect Benny… _


	8. Chapter 8

  In his cell, Benny slept, or more so, rested, seeing as he couldn't exactly sleep like Emmet. From what he could assume, it had been the break of dawn, seeing as how the other creatures in other cells had slowly been waking up. He heard a yawn from his left.

  “Morning, Benny!” Unikitty greeted. From the sound of their voice, they had just finished stretching.

  “Good morning, Unikitty.” He said back. Almost immediately after, the large doors in the room flew open, and Business walked in and over to the control panel. “Let’s see who we have today…” Benny could just barely see the screen on the panel, but just enough to see a selection of letters and numbers. Business punched in ‘65E' and called in robots. A cage opened up and a large, colorful creature jumped out and made a beeline towards Business. The president clapped and robots went over to taze the creature, stunning it enough to tranquilize it. Benny could see that it had a tall body, long neck and four legs and arms. He assumed it looked skinnier than it should naturally be. The robots wrapped a net around the creature and dragged it off, Business following.

  Unikitty waited until the doors had closed again. “There goes Phil… He was supposed to be let go in two days! Guess that man felt nice!! That’s weird though, usually he waits longer to take one of us out.”

  Benny felt like that seemed a bit suspicious.

  “He’s been taking us out more and more often. Must be gettin’ nice or something.”

  Benny could hear a yawn and purring coming from their cage. “Hey, Benny, can you wake me up in 30 minutes? Thanks, you’re a real pal.”  
  “But I did not-”  
  Unikitty started snoring. Benny sat in silence the rest of the morning, watching Business come back in here for another creature. He sighed.

  “Emmet, I hope you are out there-”  
  “HEY, YOU NEVER TOLD ME WHO EMMET WAS!” Unikitty shouted, startling Benny and just about making him jump out of his skin. You know, if he had skin.

  “You keep dodging the question!” Unikitty said.

  “I am not dodging anything! Emmet is just my friend!” Benny shouted. Maybe a little too loud, seeing as other creatures around them started some commotion. “Emmet is my friend and I know he is out there looking for me. I just hope that the chiefs are helping him as well.”

  “‘The chiefs’?” Unikitty echoed.

  “Y-Yes. Emmet said their names were… Officer Gabriel and Officer Brendan! I am assuming all three of them are on their way here right now, coming to find me.” Benny continued. “Emmet promised me that he will help me get home. He said that he would make sure of it.”

  Unikitty sighed. “Benny, I hate to tell you this, but there’s not much they can do if you’re stuck in here. I saw the place on the way in, it’s a nightmare. I wanna get out of here as much as you do but… I just don’t think it’s possible unless that man comes and gets us.” Benny took Unikitty’s words into consideration and let his back hit one of the walls around him. He slowly dozed off back to sleep as well, keeping Emmet in his thoughts.

  


  Emmet stayed on the couch the rest of that day, not doing much, other than getting up to go to the bathroom. Thoughts about Benny and his mother flooded his mind. Were they okay? Were they safe? Were they _alive?!_ He hoped, _God, he hoped_ that the answer to all three questions was ‘yes’. The way the chiefs described the president however… Emmet was starting to have doubts. Good Cop was spouting off about some story with their dad, but Emmet had hardly been paying attention, but honestly, Good Cop was only doing it to fill the silence. The only thing he registered out of any of what he was saying was something about fish, and even _that_ was pretty vague in his mind. He didn’t register Good Cop coming over and sitting down next to him until the weight on the other end of the couch shifted.

  “Thinkin’ about Benny an’ your mother, huh?” was the first thing the chief had asked. Emmet softly nodded, a bit tired from the lack of sleep he had been getting. He ‘subtly' moved over closer to to Good Cop and leaned up against him. The chief gently placed an arm around the boy. “I understand what it’s like t’ be worried about someone. Especially if that _someone_ could be in danger.” Emmet buried his face in their chest. “It’s goin’ t’ be okay, though-”

  “You keep saying it’s going to be okay, Officer Gabriel!” Emmet interrupted, jumping off the couch. “But neither of you are making a move to help me go save them! Benny is in some place where he could get hurt, _or worse_ ! You probably don’t even care about him but _my mom is in there_.” He sniffled. “My mom’s in there. It went too far, okay?! I understand that now, but we can’t let both of them suffer for how much of an idiot I was for even thinking I could help Benny. Honestly, I bet I can’t even help him now, since he’s probably already dead…” Emmet held his face in his hands and began to cry. Good Cop went to pull him in for a hug but was soon swatted away. “Leave me alone!” Emmet shouted before running off to the bathroom.

  The room was silent after that. Good Cop put his face in his hands as well and took a deep sigh.

 

  Unikitty had been going on about some story from their time in the clouds. Benny, however wasn’t listening. He was concentrating instead. Concentrating on changing his form, something he’s seen others of his kind do. Unikitty slowly trailed off from their story and watched as Benny stretched out a ‘hand’ towards the control panel in the center of the room, through the air openings in the glass. His hand hadn’t even looked like a hand at that point, more of a cloud of space and stars. He made it just about halfway before he tired himself out.

  “Hey, Benny! What’re you doing?” Unikitty asked, leaving their story to be finished later. Benny rested for a few moments, long enough to answer their question. “I am trying to alter my appearance.”  
  “Whassat mean?”

  “I am changing my form.”  
  “Ohh… I see! I get what you’re saying!” Unikitty didn’t ask any more questions and left Benny to work, each time he tried, he slowly got closer and closer to the panel. The few times he almost made it were the times Business came in to retrieve another creature, causing him to zip his arm back in fear of getting caught. This was going to take a while, Benny figured, considering he was still young. He sighed and kept at it. He knew he had to keep trying. For Emmet and for every other creature stuck in here.

  


  Emmet eventually emerged from the bathroom again that night, not bothering to even make eye contact with the chiefs. He wasn’t talking to them, and he sure wasn’t going to sit next to them on the couch. At that moment, he was lying down on the loveseat, back facing the living room, while Bad Cop was sitting at the kitchen table, doing _something. What was he doing? Was-_ No! No, Emmet didn’t care. Not in the slightest. He curled up into himself and tried to force himself to go to sleep. It wasn’t really working that well. The smallest noises seemed to keep him awake. Pencil scribbles, papers rustling, yells of frustration. _What were the chiefs doing over there?_ NO! He didn’t care! He grabbed a blanket from the floor and made himself comfortable enough to sleep.

 

  Emmet woke up to someone calling his name.

  “Emmet.”

  He dismissed as nothing but a dream.

  “ _Emmet,_ you need t’ wake up.”

  Okay, maybe that wasn't a dream. Emmet slowly opened his eyes and was met with Good Cop’s round glasses. His brain registered what was going on and Emmet covered his own face up with the blanket.

  “No, no, no! Don’t do that!!” Good Cop frantically grabbed at the blanket, but Emmet had a vice grip on it, keeping his face covered. Bad Cop switched in, pulling with more force than his brother was. “EMMET, PLEASE!”

  “No! I’m still mad at you!!”

  How can a twelve year old be this strong?! He heard the fabric in the blanket stretching and immediately let go. Their ma made that for them, there’s no way he’s going to ruin it. Emmet covered himself back up with the blanket and huffed. He just about fell back asleep before he quickly realized that now, someone had been moving him! Bad Cop had held him upside down, blanket and all and Emmet frantically kicked and punched whatever he could, pretty sure he landed one or two kicks on the chiefs’ face. “Let me go!!!” He shouted. Emmet soon found himself in the backseat of a car, Bad Cop now in the driver’s seat.

  “Get buckled up.” Bad Cop asked, calmly. Emmet surrendered to the situation and did as told, the chief starting to drive off out of the driveway.

  “Where are we going?” Emmet asked after several minutes of quiet driving.

  “President Business’ office.” He answered, not taking his eyes off the road. “I think we may have a plan t’ get Benny an’ your mother out of there."

 


	9. Chapter 9

  Emmet had been stuck in the back of the chiefs’ car, still fully dressed in pajamas. Emmet knew it was going to be a long car ride, he may as well go back to sleep. He glanced at the clock on the car radio. 2:27am. Of course. Bad Cop must’ve noticed how tired Emmet looked, because what he said to break the silence was, “There’s a bag back there. Should have a blanket if you want t’ sleep. Should have some clothes your size too, as well some other necessities.”

  Emmet sleepily nodded and looked in the floorboard. Sure enough, there was a good-sized blue bookbag sitting there.

  “It’s goin’ t’ be a while, Emmet. You may as well sleep right now an’ get some rest.” Emmet had never really heard a caring tone like that in Bad Cop’s voice. He opened up the bag and inside, he found a soft, fleece, blue blanket. He covered himself up in the blanket, rested his head against the window and soon fell asleep.

 

  Emmet woke up some time later to the sound of robots’ voices.

  ‘PLEASE STEP OUT OF THE VEHICLE AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP.’

  ‘YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON LORD BUSINESS’ PROPERTY.’

  ‘THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE, AM I RIGHT.’

  It took Emmet several seconds to realize he wasn’t in the car anymore, but instead, outside and in the chiefs’ arms. Bad Cop shushed Emmet when he noticed he was awake. “Keep quiet.” he whispered. Emmet did as he was told.

  The sun had just been rising, so Emmet could only assume it was 6, maybe 7 in the morning. Bad Cop got a better hold on Emmet, grabbed both their bags, and moved somewhere away from the car, just as robots approached it.

  There had been jagged rocks surrounding what Emmet could assume was Business’ office (He had never seen the actual building, so he had no idea for sure), and Bad Cop quietly ran behind one of them, catching his breath. Both Emmet and the chiefs waited, waited, waited-

  ‘THERE IS NO ONE INSIDE THIS VEHICLE.’

  ‘PERHAPS IT IS A SELF-PILOTING VEHICLE?’

  ‘SHUT UP, FRANK, THAT HAS TO BE YOUR WORST IDEA YET.’

  Sounds of clattering metal against metal.

  ‘IT DOES NOT MATTER. WE SHOULD PROBABLY GET THIS VEHICLE TO LORD BUSINESS.’

  ‘SHUT UP, CARL, _THAT_ HAS TO BE _YOUR_ WORST IDEA YET.’

  ‘SHUT UP, FRANK, IT IS NOT AN IDEA.’

  ‘WILL YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING FOR TWO-POINT-TWO-THREE-SEVEN-SEVEN SECONDS.’

  ‘I AM SORRY, BOB.’

  Bad Cop looked over at the robots and the car which… were both gone. So they must've really took the chiefs’ personal car then. Bad Cop swore under his breath and Emmet gently slapped his face. “Watch your mouth.” He whispered. Bad Cop apologized and quietly snuck out from behind the rocks, making his way over to the backdoor of the building.

  “Officer Brendan, what’s happening?” Emmet asked, once he was sure the robots were gone and they were safe.

  “We messed up, kid. We were supposed t’ get here _quietly_ but Gabriel an’ I completely forgot Business upped his security once Benny landed on Earth.” Bad Cop whispered, “Did we end up explainin’ the plan t’ you or were you asleep?”

  Emmet just shrugged. Bad Cop swore again, receiving another slap from Emmet.

  “Okay kid, listen closely, cause we don’t have all that much time to explain it again. First,” he pulls a card from his pocket, “we’re goin’ t’ use our security card to get us in here. Then,” he points somewhere above him, “Gabe an’ I are goin’ in and tryin’ to distract the president while you run in and look for Benny an’ your mother. It’s a big building, so we don’t expect you t’ find them right away. But Business isn’t exactly a very patient man, so don't mess around in there, got it?” Emmet nodded and the chief continued. “Once you find Benny, there’s no doubt that wherever he’s held has security, alarms, an’ some kind of passcode. Now, Business usually keeps an emergency book of passcodes under the front desk. Here’s the thing about the front desk: Robots are stationed there everyday from 11am to 10pm, meanin’ we have about 3 or 4 hours t’ pull off getting that book of passcodes. Keep in mind, that robot behind the desk has _audio sensors_ , meaning they won’t see you, but if you make any kind of noise, they will for sure.” Emmet nodded, before Bad Cop continued.

  “You’re a pretty sneaky kid, Emmet. We both have a feeling you’d be able t’ pull that off.” Emmet smiled a bit at hearing that, feeling… pretty proud of himself.

  “But like I said, Emmet. We can’t have you messin’ around in there, alright? This is somethin’ that needs to get done fast. Any questions?”

  Emmet inhaled, then exhaled. “No.” Bad Cop nodded, swiped his passkey, and the two of them headed inside.

  


  Good Cop went up the stairs, headed to Business’ office. Both the chiefs were silent in their mind as they were just about terrified of what’s to come for the both of them. That didn’t matter, though! The only thing that mattered right now was getting Emmet, Benny, and Doris out of this hell of an office safely. Emphasis on the word, ‘safely’. They eventually reached the door to Business’ main office and took a breath. Good Cop was frozen as he kept his knuckles at the door, waiting for some kind of motivation or courage or _something_. Eventually, he knocked on the main doors. His heart felt like it stopped as they opened, Business’ voice echoing through the doors.

  “Come on in.”

  Good Cop didn’t let Bad Cop switch out. He stepped through the open doors and was greeted with the back of the large chair Business sat in. It was black, accented red, much like the rest of the room, the back of the chair, nearly twice the chiefs’ height, which would be extremely tall compared to Business. The desk he was sitting behind has an assortment of trinkets, a pendulum, not to mention that weird bird-water-thing every desk ever seems to have, as well as an empty picture frame, a cup full of pens, and a mug reading ‘World’s Best ~~President~~ Lord’. Good Cop resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that one every time he saw it.

  Good Cop felt a spike of anxiety once he saw Business’ chair swivel around to face him and it almost felt like his throat closed up as all words were caught.

  “I’m assuming you two are here because you have something to report about the alien that crash-landed in the middle of Bricksburg.” Business began. He stood up from his chair, pushing it away and leaning against his desk. “Right, Brendan?”

  Good Cop nervously adjusted his glasses, giving the president a ‘subtle reminder’. “I’m… Gabriel, sir-”

  “I don’t care who’s who right now, as long as it’s Brendan. Get him out here.” Business interrupted, shooing away that little reminder. Good Cop sighed and switched out the round pair of glasses on his face for aviators, and allowed Bad Cop to switch in.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “As I was saying,” Business began to walk towards the chiefs, shoes tapping the linoleum flooring. “Do you have any news on the alien that crash-landed, Brendan? We’ve known each other and have been _close_ friends for a while now and you wouldn’t keep anything from me, now would you?” He stopped in front of them, chiefs towering over him, but that didn’t stop Business from being any less intimidating.

  The chiefs have never really been this scared of him before, but they had a feeling of why this is different. “Of course not, sir, but we have nothing new to report.”  
  “Are you sure about that? Because I seem to have found some little guy hiding in that kid’s apartment. Y’know, the same kid you seemed to be visiting everyday? That kid.” Business fished a remote from his pocket, and with the press of a button, a video screen displayed what Bad Cop saw to be… Benny.

  “By the way, you like my new security system? HD Cameras in every room of this building, isn’t it great? You can see everything, _every little pixel!_ ”  
  Bad Cop just about choked. He didn’t just say _every room in this building_ did he?! Business continued.

  “I’m pretty sure I remember you saying something along the lines of not knowing anything about this thing?” Bad Cop pried his gaze away from the screen and on Business’ face was the most smug grin he’s seen on him. The chief was frozen, words caught in his throat.

  “Why would you lie to me, Brendan?” Business said, rather… calmly. That’s not good… Bad Cop swallowed and opened his mouth to say something, but was soon interrupted.

  “You do realize it’s against the law to harbor something like this, don’t you?” Business asked, grabbing the uniform of the chiefs and bringing him down to his height. That smug grin quickly disappeared. “Don’t you?”

  Bad Cop nodded. “Yes, sir.” Business found a grip on Bad Cop’s arm.

  “Funny how the chief of police would be so quick as to break one of my _main laws_ , isn’t it?”

  Bad Cop said nothing as Good Cop forced control. “Sir, if you give me a chance t’ explain-”

  “I don’t want to want to hear it.” Business grip had been starting to become painfully tight.

  


  Emmet went left, straight into the front office, where he was supposed to find Business’ book of passcodes for the building. He kept Bad Cop’s ‘Keep Quiet’ rule in mind and made careful steps around the room. The floor was tiled and Emmet had been in socks so it shouldn't be easy for the audio sensors to pick up his footsteps. He was careful to pick up his feet and not slide them, making sure his pajamas didn't swish together, and he breathed through his mouth. The room had been large but eventually made his way over to the front desk, where the robot behind it had been shut down, waiting for an audio prompt. _Any kind of audio prompt_ . Emmet took a breath and snuck his way around it, a few close calls, but nothing enough to warrant it to turn on. He sat down behind the desk and stared at the wall of drawers presented to him. _Oh, boy,_ Emmet thought to himself. He gently pulled them out, one by one, looking through the files inside. Bad Cop could have at least given him an idea of what it looked like, or what drawer it was in. Hopefully it was labeled something, like, ‘Big Book of Passcodes’ or ‘Passcodes Here’.

  Drawer #5 and still no luck. Emmet hoped Drawer #6 had the book. He opened the drawer and-

  Nothing. Just a bunch of spare ties. What does this guy even do with all these ties?! Emmet held in a groan as he resisted the urge to slam the drawer shut. He quietly sighed and stood back up. Of course, when he stood up, Emmet lost his footing. Socks on a linoleum floor isn’t a good combination.

  Emmet landed on his back with a loud thud. “OW! … Oops.”

  The hum of the robot to his left assaulted his ears and suddenly it powered on.

  ‘I AM SORRY BUT IT IS [8:43] AM. IT IS TOO EARLY FOR YOU TO BE HERE. I WILL NOW NOTIFY LORD BUSINESS OF YOUR ARRIVAL.’

  And that’s when the alarms sounded. Emmet scrambled to find that book, not even worrying about whatever mess he was making. It didn’t take long for the guard bots to get there, however.

  ‘HALT! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR TRESPASSING!’ One of them shouted. Emmet grabbed the first book he saw and made a break for it.

  ‘NO! I SAID TO HALT! DO HUMANS JUST NEVER LISTEN?’

  ‘PROBABLY.’

 

  Emmet slipped several times in his socks against the floor, and tried to take them off as he ran, nearly tripping and/or dropping the book in the progress. He threw them at the robots chasing after him in an attempt to get them away long enough to hide. He missed the first one, but got a robot in the face the second.

  ‘OH NO. IT SMELLS LIKE SWEATY KIDS’ FEET.’

  ‘DO NOT INHALE, FRANK. DO NOT INHALE.’

  Emmet giggled as two robots stayed behind to help it, with two others continuing to chase him. Emmet had no idea where he was running, all he knew is that he had to get away, and he had to find Benny.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of author's notes thus far, but I'm so happy that Space Oddity is starting to grow as fast as it is !!! I'm also glad that you, reader, have stuck around for as long as you have! Means a lot <8)

  Business still had his grip tight on Good Cop’s arm, holding his uniform and bringing him down to look at him in the eye.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to-”

  The sound of alarms filled the room and a screen popped up showing live feed from the front desk.

  Good Cop’s eyes widened behind his glasses at the sight of Emmet on the screen. “Oh, no…” he said under his breath.

  “What’s this we have here?” Business turned towards the large screen, showing the security feed. Emmet had just run off before Business got a good look at his face. “Switch to Camera #57!”

  Another live feed popped up on screen, showing Emmet running down the hallways and away from the robots. Business watched as Emmet tore off his socks and threw them at his robots. “Where is he going, Brendan-”  
  “Sir, please, you have to let us explain! You-” Good Cop begged. Business just threw them to the floor.

  “WHERE IS HE GOING?!” Business shouted.

  Good Cop said nothing.

  “I _know_ for a fact that he’s with you. _Where is he going with that book?!_ ”

  Good Cop remained silent.

  ‘Gabe, what’re you doin’?! _Jus’ tell him where the kid’s goin’!’_

  Business picked them up by their uniform once more, but Good Cop stood his ground. “Alright. Fine. Don’t tell me then. I have ways of figuring things out myself.” A map came on screen then, Business walking over and inputting some coordinates in the keyboard. A line, following the same directions Emmet had been running. Business hit a button, proceeded to throw Good Cop into a nearby chair, and handcuffed him to both arms.

  “I feel as though certain punishments are in order, aren’t they, Gabriel?”

  


  It took Emmet several minutes before he finally lost the rest of the robots on his tail. He clutched the book close to his chest and held his breath as he hid behind a column in a large room. Robots had been talking directly behind him, but Emmet was so terrified that he didn’t even register most of it. He waited, quietly and patiently as he heard the sound of feet leaving. He exhaled, stood up and ran into the nearest room.

  Emmet gently shut the large doors behind him, being sure not to alert anyone else that he was there. Once he turned around he was surprised at what he had seen. The walls were covered in what he could assume were cages, holding creatures, most of them he couldn't even recognize. He noticed the large control panel in the center of the room.

   _This must be where Benny is._ Emmet thought to himself.

  He placed the book on top of the control panel and flipped the pages. He inputted each code one at a time. Some worked and opened cells, some didn’t. Most of the cells ended up being empty.

  “EMMET!!” A voice called.

  Emmet turned his head to the voice and saw Benny hiding in the corner of the room, outside of a cage. Both their faces lit up.

  “Benny!!” Emmet ran over to make sure he was okay, and was greeted with a hug from the other child. Emmet returned it, just about crying.

  “I’m glad you’re safe, Benny.”

  “I am glad you are safe too, Emmet.”

  Then the doors slammed open.

  Robots piled into the large room, keeping Emmet and Benny cornered against the wall.

  ‘IT IS THE END OF THE LINE. SURRENDER NOW AND PERHAPS LORD BUSINESS WILL GO EASY ON YOU.’

  Emmet held Benny close to him, bracing themselves for what the robots were about to-

  Then a chair flew across the room, hitting several robots in the process. It landed in front of the two children with a clang, and they looked up to see the chiefs standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Emmet noticed they were severely injured, face bruised and bloodied on one side.

  “Get LOST! YOU STUPID ROBOTS!” He shouted, grabbing another chair and throwing it again, Emmet moving Benny out of the way just as it landed where they were previously sitting.

  “EMMET! Let’s get movin’!” He called out. “Y’got Ben?”  
  “YEAH, but what about my mom?!” He responded.

  “No time! Business is _not_ happy. We’ll come back some other time!”

  ‘NO YOU WON’T! THAT SPACE KID IS MINE!’ Business yelled over the PA System.

  “Wait! Benny are you seriously leaving without me?!” A new voice called from the cages. Benny wriggled out of Emmet’s hold and ran over to the control panel, ripping it open and reaching inside. Suddenly, the whole room seemed to power down as each cage opened, one by one, freeing each creature left inside. They all trampled over the new robots coming in, allowing Bad Cop, Emmet, and Benny to make a break for it.

  ‘OW. I HAD JUST GOTTEN THAT JOINT REPLACED.’ One of them complained.

  One, rather pink creature jumped down in front of the three of them, Bad Cop immediately drawing his blaster. Benny quickly floated over and gave him a hint to put it away. Bad Cop complied and swallowed.

  “This is my friend, Unikitty.” Benny explained.

  This creature was… not like any creature Emmet had seen. They appeared to be a… cat/unicorn hybrid of some sort. Their front legs were cat-like, while their hind legs being more horse-like, as well at the tail. Their face was similar to that of a cat’s as well, the only difference being the blue horn on their head. Bad Cop thought they were too brightly colored for his taste.

  “Look, kid, it’s nice t’ meet the friends you made an’ all, but we have t’ really get out of here-” Bad Cop was interrupted by the PA System again.

  ‘ROBOTS GO AFTER THEM ALREADY!’

  ‘SIR, YOU HAVE NO MORE ROBOTS.’

  ‘Wait, really? I thought I had over 300 of- Hey! Where are you going?!!’

  They all made a break for it, climbing on Unikitty’s back, per their request. Bad Cop held onto the kids in front of him as Unikitty began to run.

  “WOO HOO! It feels so good to run again!!” They shouted.

  ‘No! No, no, NO! THEY’RE GETTING AWAY!’

  “Hey guys? I have a crazy idea!” Unikitty began, not even bothering to give the three of them a time to respond before jumping out of the nearest window, Emmet and Bad Cop yelling, “NO, UNIKITTY!”

  Shards of glass met them in their descent as they crashed into the ocean below.

 

  Bad Cop was the first one to surface, gasping for air. The water stung his face, salt getting into the injuries. They weren’t far from shore and he swam over to the edge of the tower they fell from. He leaned his back against land and hissed at the pain across his face.

  Benny was the next to resurface, holding Emmet close to him. From what Bad Cop could see, Emmet had been unconscious.

  “He will not wake up.” Benny simply said.

  Bad Cop scooted over to the edge of the water, Benny placing Emmet in front of him. The chief placed his hands on Emmet’s chest.

  He wasn’t breathing.

  He pushes down. Then again. Then again. Then again-

  And Emmet comes to, coughing up water from his lungs. He looked weak and all Bad Cop did was sit him up for him to lean against the larger man.

  Unikitty came back up next. “WHOA, THAT WAS SO FUN!!!”

  Bad Cop did nothing but hold Emmet close, Benny hugging him as he started to cry into the chiefs chest. Unikitty stopped themself short and climbed out of water, shaking all the water off their fur before curling up in front of Emmet. They were massive compared to him, but they made sure to keep him warm.

  They all stayed that way until the PA System could be heard from the tower they were leaning against.

  ‘I want every robot fixed IMMEDIATELY! AND I WANT THOSE FOUR CAUGHT!!’

  Bad Cop picked up Emmet gently, the boy still coughing up what water is left in his lungs. “We need t’ get you some dry clothes.”

  “What about- about that stuff you brought us? Those bags?” Emmet weakly asked, coughing a bit more.

  Bad Cop stood up, Benny clinging onto his back. The sun had just been rising. “We’ll go get ‘em, okay? I left them out here somewhere.”

  Unikitty looked up at the clouds. “Hey, Benny?”

  Bad Cop began to walk towards the front area of the building, Benny staying to talk to Unikitty.

  “I think I need to go home. My family probably misses me, y’know? Been away for a while. Um, it was nice meeting you! I hope I could visit Earth again sometime, and I hope you find your way home too, alright?” Unikitty gave Benny a smile, which he promptly returned.

  “Benny, come on! We gotta go.” Bad Cop called out.

  “See you, Benny.” Unikitty said before they jumped into the air, turning into a wisp of clouds and rising up into the sky. Benny waved goodbye as Bad Cop kept calling him over.

  “I am coming!” He called back. Emmet had fallen asleep in Bad Cop’s arms by the time he caught up.

  “What happened to th’ weird unicorn-cat thing?” The chief asked. He stopped for a bit to allow Benny to climb back up on his back.

  “Unikitty had to go home. I hope the best for them.”

  “Yeah.” Bad Cop started, beginning to walk again. “I do too.”


	11. Chapter 11

  Bad Cop, Emmet, and Benny were able to crash at an inn somewhere in the Old West. It wasn’t much, but it was good enough for hiding from Business and whatever forces he was sending to look for them. Bad Cop got a few bandages for his face and Emmet and Benny had crashed on the bed. There had been only one but the former cop figured he could just sleep on the couch that night. Now all three of them were fugitives and Bad Cop knew this was one of the worst days of his life. It was already getting pretty late. Bad Cop considered finding a market or something in town, but after the fiasco everyone had just gone through, he found it better off to wait for a bit. Relax and take a breather. Bad Cop sat on the couch and held his bandaged face in his hands. He thought for a bit. “Goddamnit…” He took a breath before taking off his wet uniform and exchanging them for dry clothes. He was going to have a hard time sleeping tonight, he just knew it.   
_ He just knew it. _   
  
  Benny woke him up early the next morning, sitting on Bad Cop’s chest as the man was sprawled out on the couch, laying on his back. “Good morning!” For a being made from space, this kid sure did have quite a bit of weight to him. Bad Cop groaned as he made a move to push Benny off. He couldn’t find the strength or energy to. Emmet called from the other side of the room. “Hello!” Bad Cop gave a bit of a weak wave. “Hey, kid.” He grumbled, still groggy from sleeping.   
  “When’s breakfast? Benny and I have been up for a while and we haven’t eaten anything.”

  Bad Cop sat up on the couch, rubbing at his good eye, seeing as the other was covered in bandages. “Breakfast? Don’ they have breakfast at these inns somewhere?”

  “At hotels, maybe. Besides, neither of us are allowed to leave without an adult, I don’t think?” Emmet said.

  “How th’ hell were you raised, kid?” Bad Cop mumbled under his breath. “Put on your shirt then, Emmet, we’re goin’ t’ go find a market. I swear, sometimes you treat me like ‘m your dad or somethin’.”

 

  Benny had been sitting in the bathroom with Emmet as he got changed from his old clothes into the new ones Bad Cop had brought for him, as well has combing his hair and brushing his teeth. 

  “Emmet?” Benny began. “What is a ‘dad’?”

  Emmet spit into the sink. “A dad is… someone you look up to, I guess. Someone who takes care of you, and would go great lengths to make sure you’re safe and okay.” He looked at Benny’s reflection in the mirror.

  “Would Officer Brendan and Gabriel be a dad?” He asked.

  Emmet rinsed off his toothbrush and put it back into his bag. “I dunno. I guess?” 

  “Do  _ you _ have a dad?” Benny asked as well.

  Emmet shrugged. “Not really, he kinda just… up and left one day. Haven’t heard from him since.”

  Benny didn’t ask much else. 

 

 Bad Cop had been waiting by the door, wearing nothing but a white t-shirt, jeans, and shoes. His aviators were placed over his bandaged face. Benny and Emmet almost didn't recognize him without his uniform. 

  Emmet froze. “Wait! What about Benny?! He can’t leave the inn!” Bad Cop just stared at the smaller child standing next to Emmet. Oh, right. Bad Cop forgot about him. He thought for a moment. He couldn’t leave these two boys here by themselves, could he? It’d be too dangerous, especially since he didn’t really know how far Business’ robots have gotten yet. He walked over to the two backpacks leaning against the bed and grabbed his, which was the larger of the two. He emptied the contents onto the bed and placed Benny into the bag.

  “There we go.” Bad Cop stated, not even sure if this was a good idea or not. “You think you’d be able t’ carry him?”

  “I dunno.” Emmet went and made an attempt. “Mm, probably! But he might start hurting my back pretty soon, though.”

  “We’ll make it quick then. Benny, you doin’ alright back there?” 

  Benny nodded and ducked down into the bag. His voice was muffled by the fabric. “It is very comfy in here!” 

  “Stay hidden in there, kid.” Bad Cop said, unlocking the door and heading out, motioning for Emmet to follow.

 

  Luckily the market hadn’t been far, and they were in and out in less than 10 minutes, Bad Cop cooking breakfast with what little appliances they had. A microwave and a toaster didn’t exactly help all that much. Bad Cop was grateful these kids didn’t want pancakes, but toaster waffles ended up working just fine. He gave each kid their plates, Emmet getting three, Benny getting two. He gave himself three as well and sat down between the two children in front of the couch, placing his plate between theirs on the coffee table. 

  “Syrup, Emmet?” He asked.

  “Yes, please!” Emmet took the bottle of syrup from Bad Cop’s hand and drowned his waffles in syrup. Emmet handed it over back to Bad Cop, who… put a more  _ reasonable _ amount on his breakfast. 

  “Benny? Would you like some?” Bad Cop asked. Benny held his plate close to his chest, protecting them. 

  “I do not know what… ‘syrup’ is.” He just about whispered. Emmet walked around the table and sat down next to him. Bad Cop began eating as he explained what it was. “Syrup just makes your waffles and pancakes and stuff taste good!!” 

  “Do the waffles and pancakes not already taste good?” Benny asked. 

  Emmet opened the bottle back up. “Well, they do, but this makes it taste even better!”

  Benny said nothing in response.    
  “Wanna try just one bite with syrup on it?” Emmet asked, holding the bottle of syrup in front of the other. Benny shook his head.

  “No, thank you, Emmet. I will eat them without.” Emmet shrugged and continued to drown his second waffle in syrup. 

  “Suit yourself!” He said. The three of them continued to eat in silence. Benny eventually cleaned off his plate, leaving Emmet and Bad Cop to finish. 

  “Officer Brendan?” Benny asked. Bad Cop just grunted in response. “What is wrong with your face? It is injured and bandaged.”   
  Bad Cop nearly dropped his fork. He swallowed what food was in his mouth. 

  “It’s fine.”

  Emmet realized that he had been wondering that too. “It doesn’t look fine-”   
  Bad Cop slammed his fork down. “ _ I said ‘it’s fine’. _ ”

  Emmet and Benny both froze. Bad Cop stood up and discarded what was left of his breakfast.

  “Finish eating.” 

  And Bad Cop walked out and resisted the urge to slam the door.

  Emmet decided he was done eating as well.

  
  


  “ROBOTS!!” Business screamed into the PA system in the building. “REPORT TO MY OFFICE  _ IMMEDIATELY!!! _ ” 

  Soon, nearly 300 robots piled into Business’ main office. Some still broken from Bad Cop’s little attack. Some were still falling apart, a maintenance bot repeatedly putting the arm back on one robot. Business impatiently paced around the room, eyeing each robot as he walked by. “Can anyone tell me why all of you thought it was best to let those three get away?” 

  The robots were all a murmur of ‘HE GOT OUT OF OUR GRASP’, ‘THEY ALL JUST GOT AWAY’, and ‘THAT CHAIR BROKE 59.2% OF MY BODY’.

  Business just put his face in his hands and sighed. “I honestly thought what I did to those two cops would get them to back off a bit, you know?” He said to no one in particular.

  “Taking away their position honestly wasn’t all that best of an idea, just really gave them a reason to rebel more.” He shook his head, trying to get himself back on track. “All you robots need to do your jobs better!!” He slammed a button on his desk and all the robots were brought to attention. Soon, another robot, more of an endoskeleton than anything ushered all of them into the Robot Infirmary to be repaired.

  “You better not take long! I need those three brought here ASAP!” Business turned to a random robot to his left. “You!”

  The robot, whose name was Charlie, as said by his nametag, saluted. “Yes, Lord Business?”

  Charlie was, as Business put it, defective. Worked better as a measly easy-to-shoot guard bot than anything. Something to slow intruders down. In reality, he was just a bot equipped with a more advanced AI than the others. Charlie assumed he was just a glitch in the system at first. 

  “You’re durable, right?” Business asked.

  Charlie adjusted the goggles on his face, despite the fact he didn’t  _ really _ need them. “Y-Yes, sir.” Business brought an image up on a large screen, images of Bad Cop, Emmet, and Benny from the security footage from the previous day. 

  “I need you to go after these three, got it?! Find them and bring them to me.  _ Alive _ . Understand, C-497?”

  Charlie winced at hearing his model name, but slauted anyway. “Yes, Lord Business, sir!”

  Business hit a few buttons on the computer on his desk and gave Charlie a printed out packet of the images he had just shown him. Charlie took them and put it inside his chest compartment. “Thank you, sir-”

  “Get going, kid, you got a long way to go.”

  Charlie immediately ran out of the office, Business watching the security cameras, making sure he at least made it to the garage in one piece. After a few trips and falls, Charlie was in a police cruiser and out of the garage.

  
  


  Bad Cop slept most of the day. Emmet and Benny didn’t understand why, but they thought best not to disturb him or wake him up. The only times he got up and out of bed was to replace the bandages across the right side of his face. Once Bad Cop had been back in bed, Benny pulled Emmet into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub.

  “Emmet? What is wrong with Officer Brendan and Gabriel? They do not seem… okay.” He asked. Emmet just shrugged and peaked out the door, looking at the sleeping cop. 

  “I don’t know, Benny. I’m starting to get concerned, too. When I was staying with him while you were…” He trailed off. “They were usually the first ones up. Officer Gabriel was always in the kitchen.” 

  Bad Cop tossed and turned in his sleep, and went still once more.   


  “I don’t know what’s going on.”

  Benny didn’t ask anymore questions, and the two of them returned to the couch and watched the television in the inn.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys i forgot to mention but there's some mentions of blood and someone has a panic attack in this chapter. stay safe yall !!

Bad Cop woke up at some ungodly hour in the morning, face stinging from the pain. He groaned, then looked over at the two sleeping children on the couch on the other side of the room. Sighing, he stood up, holding his injured face, and walked over to the bathroom. 

 

  The splash of water on his face stung. Bad Cop hissed at the pain and watched the bloody mess go down the drain. He breathed, grabbed the roll of bandages and looked up. 

  Whatever he saw in the mirror wasn’t him. He immediately looked back down into the sink, took a breath and looked back up. He was meeted with his reflection. Only it wasn’t him, rather…

  “Gabriel?” he barely whispered. He couldn't- couldn't breathe, and suddenly _the room around him felt cold but_ _God, his face stung so bad, the cuts burned and ached and he wanted to scream and cry. He gripped the edge of the counter as hard as he could, his knuckles turning white. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, and his heart was racing, thundering in his ears._

_   “Gabriel, no, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t want-” _

__ And everything went dark. 

  “Emmet! Is he okay?! What is happening?!”

  Emmet immediately rushed over to where Bad Cop had been on the bathroom floor, shaking, crying, and-

  “Benny, I think he’s having a panic attack!” Emmet placed a hand on Bad Cop’s arm, only to have him flinched and swing his arm in that direction, Emmet ducking just in time. “Officer Brendan! It’s okay! It’s just us, Emmet and Benny!!”

  Bad Cop started screaming. 

  “Officer Brendan it is alright!!” Benny said, hoping to reassure him. 

  “There's a kid in my class that has panic attacks all the time. Let me see if I can remember how they help calm her down.” Emmet said, putting a finger over his lips, letting Benny know to be quiet. He pointed up and Benny reached to turn off the exhaust fan. Bad Cop’s screams slowed to a stop as well, and the only sounds that could be heard was his whimpering and hyperventilating.

  Emmet spoke in a hushed tone. “It’s okay, Brendan. You’re okay. We’re both here for you! Think about some happy things! You guys told us about a lot of stuff with your mom and dad while you were visiting us, right? You guys always went to the lake back home, you mentioned something about a theme park in Ireland you guys enjoyed, right?” Bad Cop slowly began to respond to what Emmet was saying, giving slow and gentle nods. Eventually, his breathing started to slow a bit, Emmet hugging his side and continued his talking. 

  “Gone… gone, he’s gone…” Bad Cop started to repeat. Emmet stopped talking, eyes going wide. 

  “Who’s gone? What’s wrong?” Emmet gently asked.

  Then Bad Cop passed out asleep on the bathroom floor and Emmet and Benny shared a worried look.

 

  Benny and Emmet simply left him on the floor, seeing as neither of them could pick him up, even  _ with _ their combined strength. Emmet left a blanket and a pillow for him, hoping it’d provide just a little bit of comfort. Benny had been waiting on the couch. 

  “Is he going to be okay, Emmet?” he asked. Emmet just winced and looked back at him through the open bathroom door.

  “I hope so, Benny. He’s an adult, though, I’m sure he’ll be just fine. He can take care of himself”

 

  Emmet woke up again to the sounds of a door closing. He slowly peeked his eyes open to see Bad Cop holding a blanket and pillow, walking back to the bed. He flopped down and Emmet didn’t let himself fall back asleep until he heard snoring. 

  
  


_ Emmet found himself back home. The apartment was dark, still a disaster area, like he and the chiefs left it, and it had been pitch black outside. Most likely still before dawn. He woke up on the couch and stood up. _

_   “Mom?” he called out. “Are you home?” _

__ Of course she wasn’t home,  _ Emmet told himself,  _ she was taken by the president-

_   “Emmet, honey? Is that you?” A voice could be heard from the other room. Doris emerged from his bedroom door, a worried expression on her face. “Emmet!” _

_   “Mom!” Emmet cried, running up to give her a hug. She gladly kneeled down to accept it. Emmet threw himself into her arms, hugging her as tight as he could manage.  _ __  
_   “I missed you, sweetheart,” Doris had said.  _ __  
_   “I missed you too.” _ _  
_ __   Suddenly her arms were like a vice grip, holding Emmet a little too close for his comfort. He struggled to get out of her grasp, but looked up. A sorrowful expression was on her face. 

_   “Why won’t you come get your mother? It’s cold in here.” Emmet’s stomach lurched as the room around them turned into something similar to a jail cell. “Mom! What’s happening?!” The room was cold and Doris phased right through Emmet’s forced hug.  _

_   “Mom!”  _

_   Robots appeared behind him and dragged him away- _

 

  Emmet woke up with a shout, tears streaming down his face.

  “Mom?!” He called out. Bad Cop ran in from the other part of the room.   
  “Kid, you okay?!” He asked, Benny clinging to his leg. “You were shoutin’ about somethin’ in your sleep.” Emmet wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and looked up at the two worried expressions in his direction. He nodded. 

  “I’m fine. It was just a bad dream, I guess.” 

  Bad Cop didn’t ask anything else other than, “Well, there’s breakfast in here if you’d think you’d be okay t’ eat?” Emmet nodded again, and Bad Cop left, Benny staying to move over and sit next to Emmet. He rested his head on the other’s shoulder once he sat down. 

  
  


  Charlie’s cruiser broke down halfway to the Old West. The search in Bricksburg turned up nothing, which meant he had to go to the next best place. Of course, at the same time he absolutely dreaded the thought of going to the Old West, due to the possibility of getting dust between his joints, making it hard to move. He didn’t understand how the robots that already lived there could handle it. He figured the cruiser breaking down was a lucky break.

   However, at the same time, disappointing Business was never a  _ smart _ idea. Charlie weighed his options. Was getting deactivated by Business really worse than dirt stuck in a robot’s joints.

  Business, no competition there. Charlie groaned and called up one of the Old West robots. He hated them and their stupid dirty-but-still-movable-joints and their ‘yeehaws’ and ‘yippee-ki-’

  Charlie stopped himself there before he thought something he might regret. Another lucky break hit him when no one picked up.

  Guess he was walking.

  
  


  Emmet had been sitting at the small coffee table, eating the microwave breakfast sausage Bad Cop had bought as well. He didn’t get very far. The nightmare from that previous night had been haunting him in the back of his head. He set down his fork and leaned against the couch behind him. 

  “Everythin’ alright, Emmet?” Bad Cop asked, a bit more of that concerned tone Emmet barely heard in his voice. He nodded, saying “Yeah, I’m just not that hungry this morning.”

  “Would y’ wanna talk about your little night terror?” 

  Emmet was silent for a few moments. “It was about my mom. She’s still in that tower, isn’t she? We need to go get her.”

  Bad Cop had went to sit down next to Emmet. “Kid… I know, but… getting into that tower th’ first time was hard. It’s gonna be a while longer ‘til we can get your mother. Just hang tight, alright?”

  Emmet hugged Bad Cop. The chief rubbed Emmet’s back and hugged him back, Benny joining in. 

  “I just miss her so much…”


	13. Chapter 13

  Benny had been watching Bad Cop make lunch for the three of them. Peanut butter sandwiches were a good enough lunch, right? Of course, Emmet preferred peanut butter  _ banana _ sandwiches. He was lucky they had bought bananas. Benny could hardly see over the counter, and climbed up Bad Cop’s back to get a good view. He sat on the large man’s shoulders and rested his chin in his hair. The next few minutes had been quiet and still (aside from Bad Cop slicing up a banana). Benny wrapped his arms around Bad Cop’s head, unintentionally blocking his vision. The chief moved his arms up to his forehead so he could see what he was doing. The silence was broken by Benny’s voice.

  “Officer Brendan?”

  Bad Cop grunted in response.

  “Emmet told me about dads. He said they are someone you look up to. Someone who will protect you.”

  “Sounds about right.”   
  “Would that make  _ you _ my dads?”

  Bad Cop just about dropped his knife and Benny nearly fell off his shoulders. “Kid, what makes you think ‘m your dad?!”

  “Well… you protected me… from that man. You and Emmet came to rescue me. You helped Emmet hide me. I still do not know a lot about Earth, but that seems close to what I think a dad would do!”

  Bad Cop didn’t argue any further. 

  “May I call you two my dads?”

  “No.” Bad Cop simply said. “Okay, maybe.” he added.

  Bad Cop couldn’t see Benny’s smile, but with the way he said, “Alright, Dad,” he could hear it just fine.

  
  


  “What is that robot doing?!” Business shouted into his security monitor. “He’s just going door to door and asking if anyone’s seen anything! That’s not how  _ you guys _ got anything done, was it?!” He gestured towards the three police bots behind him. They responded with a variety of ‘NO.’, ‘NO, SIR.’ and ‘NEGATIVE.’ Business just groaned into his hands. Being president was tough, he would admit. 

  But he was tougher.

  “Robots, bring in that kid.” He demanded. Suddenly a small girl around the age of 11 or so was pushed into the room. “Hey! I told you! Watch the shoes! I kick people with those-”   
  “Lucille Vendler-”   
  “My name is  _ Wyldstyle _ !” The young girl shouted, stomping her foot. Business just brushed it off.

  “Uh-huh, yeah, sure- Lucy, you’re friends with Emmet Brickowski, aren’t you?”

  Wyldstyle just scoffed. “Hardly! He never wants to hang out anymore! Always busy with that dumb police officer.” She crossed her arms.

  “But… you  _ do _ know him, correct?” Business intertwined his fingers together and rested his hands on the desk, leaning back in his chair.

  “I guess, yeah.”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  “No!! Him and his mom probably moved out just to stay away from me. He’s not at school or at his house anymore.”

  “Well, listen here, Lucy-”   
  “Wyldstyle.”   
  “Whatever.” Business took a breath, “I need to know where Emmet and that stupid ‘cop’ friend of his is, got it? And you’re the only one left who can give me information on his current whereabouts.”   
 “I don’t know what you just said! So NO!!” Wyldstyle shouted. Business was taken aback by this. This girl is, like, 11 isn’t she? How dare she expect to shout at the president that way and get-   
  Wyldstyle started running after a robot and began to punch it.

  ‘OW. OW. YOUR LITTLE SMALL HANDS HURT.’   
  “Take that, you stupid robot! I wanna go home!! I’m missing my favorite show!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “LET ME GO- HEY!”

  The robot figured that they had had enough of the hitting and the punching and grabbed Wyldstyle, pulling her off their face.

  ‘PLEASE CEASE AND DESIST AT ONCE.’

  “ROBOTS! Just get her out of here! Give her an escort and send her home on the bus or something!” Business shooed away the chaos that was building in his office, rubbing at his head. He was starting to get a headache with Wyldstyle’s screaming. “Ay-yi-yi…”

  Suddenly, another robot, a different robot, had a burst in through the doors. Business winced with the now throbbing pain in his forehead.    
  ‘LORD BUSINESS, SIR. WE HAVE NEWS ON THE WHEREABOUTS OF [Emmet Brickowski] AND [Former Police Officers Brendan And Gabriel].’

  “Well, don’t just stand there you bucket of bolts! Where are they?”

  ‘THEY ARE LOCATED IN AN OLD INN IN THE OLD WEST.’

  “Do they call everything old in The Old West?”

  ‘NO, SIR. IT IS JUST A VERY OLD INN. BUILT IN 18-’

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t care! Just get them here,  _ now _ . And don’t forget,  _ I want them alive _ .”

  
  


  Eventually, the next day had rolled around, and Bad Cop, Emmet, and Benny had been running out of food to eat. Well, Benny could pretty much go without food for a while, but Emmet and Bad Cop weren’t exactly the same way. Before they headed out, of course, Bad Cop had been relaying a quick plan to the two boys, pretty similar to the plan to help Benny escape, with a few minor changes in the terms of rooms, and who is even being rescued.

  “Doris should be kept in th’ normal jails this time. Except these are more of alphabetical order, rather than randomly stickin’ some creature in a random free cage. We’ve been in there hundreds of times before to check on inmates, so we should have no trouble gettin’ you in an’ out. Now, we need someone t’ sneak her out without bein’ noticed. There should be another control panel in there, as well. If you input her code without a passkey, however, the alarms will sound. 

  “Benny, as for you, we’re goin’ t’ have you be th’ one to get Doris out of there, alright? We’ll have you hide in that backpack again so you won’t be seen, but  _ stay in there until Emmet gives you the okay _ . Now keep in mind, you two, this place still has audio sensors everywhere, meanin’ you have to be  _ as quiet as possible _ . Emmet already knows this but, Benny, you understand, correct?”

  Benny nodded. “Yes, Dad!” Emmet gave him a weird look. 

  “Okay, then. Next thing is-” Bad Cop could barely start his sentence before all three of them heard a large explosion outside of the inn. 

  ‘FORMER OFFICER BRENDAN, AND EMMET BRICKOWSKI COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP.” A robot’s voice said, then a scream, then, ‘I AM SORRY, WE GOT THE WRONG BUILDING.’ and then another explosion, as the robot repeated its first statement. 

  Bad Cop swore under his breath and Emmet hit him once again. He grabbed up the two boys and the backpack and headed towards the back of the inn room. “We need to go. Now.” Luckily there was a ‘back door’ of sorts the three of them could escape through. Bad Cop just hoped it wasn’t locked.

  “Officer, Brendan, what’s going on?!” Emmet cried. Bad Cop made an attempt to open the door with his half of a free hand and-

  Of course it was locked! Why wouldn’t it be locked?! He yanked it as hard as he could, still with no luck before- 

  An explosion shook the room as Emmet and Benny screamed. ‘FORMER OFFICER BRENDAN AND EMMET BRICKOWSKI, PLEASE, COME-’ A robot started before getting a swift kick in the face.

  ‘THAT WAS HIGHLY UNCALLED FOR.’ It cried out. Bad Cop’s foot had been aching from the contact with the metal as he jumped over the robot that had now been on the floor. He was soon met with three others that were headed in his direction. They pulled out blasters and charged them up. 

  “BENNY! EMMET!!” Bad Cop yelled. “Hold on tight!” The two children did as they were told, clinging onto Bad Cop’s waist like koalas as the man let go of his hold on them. He grabbed the chair that had been pushed in under the desk and  _ threw it _ , hitting two robots at once. Benny cheered as Bad Cop went for it, punching the third square in the jaw. His knuckles split from the impact and the robot went down, crashing onto the floor. Bad Cop winced from the pain as more robots piled into the room. “You’ve  _ got t’ be kiddin’ me!” _

  ‘COME QUIETLY OR WE WILL USE FORCE.’

  “We both know you’d use force anyway.”   
  Silence and stillness-

  “HE’S ONTO US, LET’S GET HIM!’ And the blasters fired, Bad Cop having trouble dodging them all. He yanked the full body mirror off the wall and hid behind it, blaster shots bouncing off and some lucky shots hitting the robots right back. 

  ‘OW OW OW OW OW OW-’ One of them shouted before shorting out. Bad Cop moved the two boys from his waist and held them both in his lap.

  ‘PLEASE COME OUT FROM YOUR COVER. WE JUST WANT TO MAKE THIS EASY FOR YOU.’

  The blaster shots just wouldn’t stop, Emmet and Benny’s screams were starting to ring in his ears, and Bad Cop just wasn’t sure how longer much the mirror was going to last.

  And then suddenly it all stopped at once. The room had been silent, save for the same voice from five different robots. Bad Cop held Emmet and Benny close as he listened, the two boys’ holds on the man tightening. Benny was whimpering into his chest as Emmet was wiping tears from his eyes. Bad Cop’s heart broke at the sight of this as he was holding back tears of his own. All three of them were just about panicking. Bad Cop had been used to nearly dying at this point but  _ there were kids with him _ . Kids who were young and afraid. Bad Cop was regretting every choice he had made up to that point for Emmet and Benny’s sake.

  “Hey, calm down, I can take care of these guys!” One robot said, in a voice that was more human than the others. 

  ‘STAND BACK, CHARLIE. YOU ARE NOT EVEN AN ACTUAL SWATBOT.’

  The first robot- Charlie, had scoffed. “Yeah, but Lord Business sent me out here, so HA!”

  The other robots said nothing as Charlie spoke again. “Besides, I’m the one who called you all about The Old West in the first place!”

  Mumbles of agreement from the other robots and the sound of blasters hitting the floor.

  Then, the sound of footsteps approached the mirror. “You’re under arrest. Anything you say can  _ and will _ be used against you in a court of law.” Charlie had said, turning the corner to face Bad Cop, especially eyeing Benny.


	14. Chapter 14

  Charlie stared at the three of them for a while and smiled as much as a robot could smile. “I finally did something good! Maybe now, Lord Business will-” 

  WHACK!

  “OW! DID YOU JUST KICK ME?!” Charlie shouted. He fixed his crooked jaw and looked up to find Bad Cop had made a dash past him and straight outside. “NO! Don’t let them get away! I’m so close to that promotion!” Each of the robots scrambled to pick up their blasters and begin firing aimlessly, one by one. Emmet and Benny kept their hold on Bad Cop as Emmet turned to look at their surroundings. With Bad Cop running, it was hard to tell if one of the police cruisers were even running. 

  “Brendan! Use one of the police cars!” He shouted, Bad Cop tightening his grip on him as he started to slip out of his arms.

  “Hold on, kid.” Bad Cop said, before making a sharp turn, dodging one of the robots that were running towards them. He hid behind one of the police cars, with the passenger side facing towards the chaos coming after them. He motioned for the children to let go as he took hold of the cruiser’s door handle. He  _ pulled _ the door open and hopped inside and-

  Of course it wasn’t running! There was no key in the ignition either! Bad Cop slammed his fist on the steering wheel, giving off a loud and quick honk from the horn. He pulled the children inside, just about throwing them into the passenger seat. “Sit still, and keep lookout!”

  ‘STOP RIGHT THERE.’ One of the robots outside shouted. Bad Cop ducked down under the dashboard and pulled open the wire compartment.

  Benny shouted, “Officer Brendan! There are several more robots that are coming after us!”

  Emmet shouted next, “I think you need to hurry with with whatever you’re doing down there, Brendan!!”

  “Kid, ‘m tryin’ t’ hotwire th’ car, could you give me a sec?!” Bad Cop shouted back.

  Robots kept approaching and shooting their blasters, which caused Emmet and Benny to grow restless and panic. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry-!”

  “GOT IT!!” Bad Cop cried as the car hummed to life. He quickly pulled himself up into the driver’s seat, and slammed the gas. The cruiser sped off and Emmet and Benny began to cheer. 

  “GO OFFICER BRENDAN AND GABRIEL! WOO!!” Emmet shouted. 

  Bad Cop breathed, then asked, “They’re still not comin’ up behind us, are they?”

  Benny turned to look out the rear window. “I do not see anything except for dust!”

  “Looks like all those police bots figured it best to step off!” Emmet said. Bad Cop just continued driving, saying nothing. Emmet calmed himself down, seeing that he was visually upset with something. “Brendan, what’s wrong?”

  “It’s nothin’, Emmet. ‘m jus’ tired.”

  
  


  “You LOST THEM?!” Business screamed at the top of his lungs at the room full of robots. He fixed his attention on one robot in particular. “CHARLIE!” He called. Charlie cautiously stepped to the front of Business’ office. 

  “Y-Yes, sir?” 

  Business pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a breath and asked calmly, “Would you mind explaining to me why you figured it’d be a good idea to interrupt the robots at work?”

  “Because, S-Sir, they- uh-” Charlie stammered out. Business simply raised an eyebrow. “Because, I felt as though I could take care of them, and b-bring them to justice. I didn’t realize it would jeopardize the mission. I’m sorry.” The robot looked down at his feet. 

  Business motioned for other robots to come in and drag Charlie away. 

  “No! No, Sir! I can do a better job next time, I promise!! I’LL TRY HARDER! I’M SORRY!” Charlie’s cries were soon interrupted by the sound of the doors slamming shut.

  “I knew I should’ve deactivated him earlier.” Business grumbled to himself. He sat back in his chair and groaned into his hands. “I just wish I had more competent robots that could do their JOBS RIGHT FOR ONCE!” Each robot subtly cowarded at the volume of his voice.

  ‘SIR, IF I MAY SUGGEST SOMETHING?’ One of the robots cautiously began. Business uncovered his face and made a gesture for the robot to continue. ‘HE HAD HIJACKED ONE OF OUR POLICE CRUISERS, ONES OF WHICH CONTAIN TRACKING DEVICES IN EACH ENGINE. PERHAPS WE COULD TRACK THEM?’ 

  Business sat up in his chair. “That… could work! Quick! Get a map up with the tracking information with that car!”

  A screen appeared on the wall to the president’s left, showing a map of the more nearer areas around them, zooming in and focusing on one moving dot in particular. “There he is…”

  
  


  Emmet and Benny had now been quietly sitting in the back seat of the police cruiser. Emmet felt a bit weird about sitting back there, seeing how it was usually used for criminals. It did work for lying down and resting however. He and Benny had been snuggled up next to each other in the seats, taking a little breather from previous events. 

  Benny quietly spoke up, “Where are we going, Dad?”

  Bad Cop didn’t know where he was driving, nor did he have plans. He just needed to get the hell out of there as fast as possible and never look back. He sighed. “I don’ know, Benny.”

  “Hey, what’s with you suddenly calling Brendan ‘Dad’?” Emmet asked, sitting up.

  “Leave him alone, Emmet, he’s not doin’ anythin’ wrong.” Bad Cop defended.

  “I didn’t say he was, but okay.”

  The next hour or so of the drive was silent, the sounds of Emmet’s snoring starting to fill the air. Benny climbed up into the passenger’s seat, gently moving the backpacks that were there. He stared at the driver.

  “What do y’ want, kid?” Bad Cop asked.

  “Thank you.” Benny simply said.

  “Fer what?”

  “For choosing to protect me, rather than turn me in to the president. I am sure Emmet thanks you too.” Benny smiled, which Bad Cop missed, seeing as he was still driving.

  “Your welcome, Benny. Hopefully we’ll be able t’ get you home, soon.”

  “I have another question I would like to ask?” Benny said after a few short moments of silence.

  “Go ahead, kid.”

  “What happened to Gabriel?”

  Bad Cop tensed and just about slammed on the brakes. Taking deep breaths, he started, “He’s fine. Don’ worry about him. Jus’ been tired.”

  “He has not come out in several days, and Emmet and I are growing worried.”   
  “‘m tellin’ you, he’s fine. Stop askin’.” Bad Cop’s grip visibly tightened on the steering wheel as Benny sat back, taking that as a sign that he should back off. After he gave Bad Cop time to cool down, he spoke up again. 

  “Thank you for trying to protect me, Dad.”

  Bad Cop opened his mouth to say something else before he noticed a red light in the dashboard. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the light read ‘TRACKING’ in bright red letters. Bad Cop swore under his breath in a language Benny didn’t recognize and slammed on the brakes. Emmet went tumbling forward in the backseat and fell into the floorboards. He cried out as Bad Cop threw the doors open and went to gather up the two boys again-

  Police sirens were heard in the distance and Bad Cop’s stomach churned. He swore again as police cruisers came from all sides over the horizon. Too many robots to fend off by himself and he obviously couldn’t ask for help from two kids. He was surrounded.   
  Robots began stepping out of the parked vehicles, armed with blasters, charged up and aimed at Bad Cop and the police car he had stolen.

  No way out.

  President Business stepped out of one of the vehicles, being sure to keep a safe distance from Bad Cop. “Hello, Brendan. Nice to see you.”

  Bad Cop knew it was all over.

  “Get those kids out here.” Business demanded and Bad Cop complied, raising his hands with Emmet and Benny copying his actions. The three of them all knew what this meant.

  They had lost.


	15. Chapter 15

The tower felt colder than they all remember, handcuffs tight around their wrists. They were wearing new clothes now, just as a precaution that they hadn’t been carrying anything dangerous to Business. Emmet, Benny, and Bad Cop were dragged along by a robot, the president walking slowly in front.

  “Honestly, I’m surprised you all thought it’d be that easy to get away from me!” Business chuckled. “NO ONE gets away from me that easy.”

  Bad Cop looked down at his broken hand and then to the floor. Emmet looked ahead, and then to Benny.

  “I’m sorry.” Emmet whispered.

  “Stop talking back there! You’re my prisoners! I don’t understand why you’d be okay with talking over the president?!

  “In all seriousness, though, I’m  _ so _ glad you three could join me! It’s so nice to have new guests here for once. That last woman we had, oh boy, she kept  _ shouting _ and  _ yelling _ about her son. Started to hurt my ears. Oh, well, we have her son now but it looks at though she’ll never be able to see him again-”

  “WHERE’S MY MOM?!” Emmet screamed. Business put his hand up to his ear, trying to stop the ringing in it. 

  “Geez, you're even louder than she was. At least I know where you get it from.” Business straightened himself and cleared his throat. “It’s really none of your business where she is; that information is for me to know and for you to hopefully never find out. The only thing that should be concerning you, is where you’re going to be for the next rest-of-your-lives!” Business eventually stopped in front of a series of jail cells and held his hand out to them as the doors to three of them opened up. The robots pushed the three of them into each one of the cells, and the doors slammed shut., slamming the doors shut behind them. 

  “Have fun.” Business simply said. Then, he left.

  They all figured they were the only ones in there, seeing as the building was just about quiet, save for Emmet’s… quiet sobs.

  “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Emmet repeated. Benny couldn’t see him through the walls, but he knew he was having a rough time.

  “Emmet, I-”

  Then Bad Cop started to sob. “It’s all my fault.” 

  Benny looked towards Emmet’s cell on his left, and Bad Cop’s cell on his right.    
  “I’m sorry, Benny… I just wanted to protect you…” Emmet cried.

 

  It seemed as hours had passed before the building was quiet again, Emmet’s quiet snoring filling the silence. Bad Cop, as Benny could only assume, was still awake. The child rested his back against the wall on the other side of Bad Cop. “It is okay, Dad. You simply did your best.”

  Bad Cop sighed. “Wasn’t enough if I end up leadin’ two kids into danger.”

  “I hate to say it, but, I feel like the situation we are in is  _ my _ fault. If I had never been near Earth in the first place and crashed, you, Gabriel, and Emmet would not be where you are today. You would be at home. Safe.” Benny’s voice began to break and he wondered if he was about to start crying as well. 

  “It’s not your fault, Benny. It was jus’ a simple accident. The situation we’re in isn’t because ‘f you. It’s Business’ fault.”

  “I am scared, Brendan.”

  “It’s okay, kid. I’m scared, too.”

 

_ Bad Cop woke up to a voice in the back of his head.  _

_   “Brendan.  _ Brendan! _ ” It called. He snapped awake and found himself in bed, back home. He looked around for Benny and Emmet- _

_   “BRENDAN.” The voice called again. He whipped around to face Good Cop in the eyes. He gasped at the sight of his brother. _

_   “Gabe, you  _ scared _ me!” Bad Cop whined.  _

_   “Why did you let that happen?” Good Cop cried, tears streaming down his face. Bad Cop opened his mouth to answer before a second voice could be heard from somewhere outside. _

__ “Brendan! Please, you must wake up!” Benny yelled, directly in Bad Cop’s face. He snapped awake, hitting his head against the wall he had fallen asleep against. He groaned and-

  “Benny?!” He yelled, “What’re you doin’ in here?!  _ How _ did you-”   
  “There is no time to explain! I believe President Business will send robots in this building any second, we must move!” 

  Emmet moved out from behind the doorway, moved over to the panel on the other side, and punched it as hard as he could. It took a few tries, with Emmet’s small amount of strength, but it eventually cracked and Bad Cop was free. Emmet shook his hand to rid the pain now spreading across from it as Bad Cop gave him an incredulous look.

  “It’s like how  _ you _ do things!” Emmet explained. He continued, “C’mon, let’s go find my mom and get out of here!” Benny climbed up on Bad Cop’s shoulders as Bad Cop and Emmet dashed down the next hall. 

  “Let’s hope I can remember this place properly! Uh… go left, that should be where the next group of cells are!” Bad Cop said, following Emmet as he made a sharp turn into a room full of… empty cells.

  ‘STOP RIGHT THERE. DO YOU THREE NOT KNOW WHEN TO STAY PUT?’ A robot suddenly shouted, standing in front of the doorway, not moving an inch.

  “You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me!” Bad Cop shouted. 

_ “Brendan, I don’t see why you guys just won’t refuse to give up already!”  _ Business’ voice played over the PA system.  _ “Do I need to do to you the same thing I did to your brother?” _

  Emmet and Benny both looked at Bad Cop.

_ “I suggest just going ahead and surrendering before I put you and Emmet on death row.” _

  “You wouldn’t kill a kid.” Bad Cop growled.

  “ _ Try me. Or don’t, you know, it’s your choice.” _ Business emerged from a nearby room and grabbed Emmet. He cried out as he tried to squirm from his hold. “Make it now.”

  “You’re sick.”

  Business smirked. “All you had to do in the first place was hand over that space kid of yours, it would’ve saved you a lot of hassle.”

  Bad Cop yelled, “I can’t even figure out why you just won’t let Benny do what he wants?! He’s a good kid, he’s never done anythin’ wrong!”

  “But he  _ could _ , Brendan. You never know what’s going on in that thing’s head, you know! It can still grow and  _ learn _ . It’s destructive and you know it! You should've seen what it did to my holding cells!” Business whined. Emmet tensed up. “I just want to keep the people I love safe. The people of Bricksburg, The Old West, Middle Zealand… etcetera… I want them happy!”

  “And you’re goin’ t’ demonstrate that by killin’ a kid who’s hardly done a single thing wrong?” Bad Cop said back, pointing at Emmet. “‘Keepin' people safe’, huh?!”

  “A few lives is a small price to pay for the safety of over 10 million people.” Business shrugged. His hold on Emmet tightened.

  “Leave him alone!!” Benny screamed. 

  The president just laughed. “You really think you’re going to do something to me? You’re  _ tiny _ !” 

  Bad Cop grabbed Benny up and held him close, scared that Business was going to try something. 

  “I’m serious, Brendan, I’m perfectly prepared to get rid of you just like I did your weak brother! Y’know, Mr. ‘I Must Protect Everyone I See No Matter How Many Laws It Breaks.’” Business taunted. Bad Cop noticeably tensed, and Benny could feel his sudden heavy breathing. 

  Emmet froze, staring at Bad Cop through the aviators that were hiding his pained expression. “Brendan?” Emmet swallowed, “What happened to Gabriel?”


	16. Chapter 16

  It seemed as though several hours passed, Bad Cop stood in silence, the sound of his heart racing thundering in Benny’s ears- or what passed as his ears anyway.

  “Go on, Brendan. Why don’t you tell them what may happen to you and the kid.” Business taunted, shaking Emmet slightly as he mentioned him.

  “He’s gone.” Bad Cop said, voice shaky. He swallowed and continued, “Business killed him.” Emmet and Benny shared horrified looks. “Ever since we went t’ distract him he-” He took a breath, “Business hurt us and- and I haven’t heard from Gabe ever since. It’s been _days_ without him and th’ silence is deafenin’.”

  “You… you _killed him?”_ Emmet asked to clarify.

  “Sure did, kiddo!” Business said back, a proud tone in his voice, “I’m honestly prepared to do it again if any of you think it’s okay to threaten my perfectly safe world!”

  “You are mean!” Benny spat at the president, “That is very cruel!! They did not deserve that! You are a very mean man!”

  “Yeah, I figured that much. But look, I didn’t want to kill him, but what else are you supposed to do when other lives are in danger-” Business was interrupted by Emmet calling him a rather… less than nice word. Then, Emmet kicked behind him as hard as he could, hitting Business’ shin.

  “LET ME GO!!” Emmet screamed. Business shouted and dropped Emmet, holding his knee.

  “You little brat!” He yelled, Emmet running up to Bad Cop and hiding behind him. Bad Cop, who was still in a shock from thinking about Good Cop, kneeled down and grabbed him up as well. He kept the two boys close to him as Business started speaking again.

  “Honestly, Brendan, I don’t understand why you don’t just accept the fact that, hey! You lost! Now it’s time to give up that freaky little alien right now, or so help me-!”

  “YEEEHAW!!” A cry came from outside. A rather… familiar voice that Benny could recognize.

  “Unikitty?”

  A pink furred creature burst through the doors, the force of it sending them flying across the room and straight into Business. They sat down on him, now on the floor and yelling, and they saluted with their front paw. “Princess Unikitty at your service!” They waved, “Hi, Benny and friends!!”

  “Hello, Unikitty!” Benny greeted back, as Bad Cop ran towards them.

  “Please tell me you’re gettin’ us out of here!” Bad Cop asked frantically, “And how did you know t’ come get us?!”

  Unikitty lowered themself to allow Bad Cop to climb on and place Emmet and Benny in front of him. They scoffed, “Of course! I wasn’t gonna let my best buddy get hurt by that guy!” They began to run out of the room, trampling the robots in the process. “Oh yeah, also I saw you guys get taken!”

  “How did you see us getting arrested?” Bad Cop asked.

  “I live up in the clouds, silly! I see a lot of things!”

  “What about Business?” Benny started, “Is he not going to come after us?” Unikitty made a sharp turn, almost losing Bad Cop in the process.

  “He shouldn’t be! I think I may have knocked him out… quite a bit!” Unikitty said, “... I may or may not have stuff in my claws that knock people out.” They finished, a little too cheerfully, given the context.

  “Unikitty!” Emmet suddenly shouted, startling Bad Cop and Benny, “We need to go find my mom!!”

 

  It took several tries and a few wrong rooms, but Unikitty eventually and finally found the room of holding cells that Bad Cop could only assume Doris was in. It was absolutely silent in there, save for the echoing footsteps the four of them were giving off. Emmet swallowed. “Mom?”

  “Emmet?!” A voice responded almost immediately. Emmet had no clue where the voice had been coming from, but that was _definitely his mother._ The two of them went back and forth, calling out for each other, and Emmet grew more and more restless as the minutes without her droned on.

  “Emmet!” Benny called out. Emmet turned towards Benny’s voice from the other side of the room. He was pointing to one cell over in the corner and Emmet _ran_ over to it. Once he saw who was sitting inside, relief _flooded_ over him.

  “Mom.” He said, voice breaking. He sat down in front of the barred doors and Doris reached her arms through and hugged him as best she could, kissing his forehead.

  “I’m so happy you’re safe, sweetheart.” She said. Bad Cop walked over to the door and kicked the side of it as hard as he could, the locking mechanism giving way. He, Emmet and Benny both pushed it open, using their combined strength. Once the doors were open, Doris ran to give Emmet a proper hug. “I missed you so much, Emmet.”  
  Emmet hugged her back as hard as he could. “I missed you, too-”   
  “Hey, look, I love family reunions as much as th’ next guy, but we have no idea when Business is goin’ t’ come after us again!” Bad Cop urgently interrupted, “Unikitty, y’think you’d be able t’ carry all four of us?”

  “You say that like you don’t trust me or something!” Unikitty laughed. The four of them climbed atop their back, Benny choosing to hang onto Bad Cop’s shoulders again. Emmet sat sandwiched in between Bad Cop and his mother

  “You know, before this past week, if someone told me pink unicorn cats and little kids from space existed, I would’ve never believed them.” Doris commented.

  Bad Cop turned to her behind him, “Tell me about it.”

  Unikitty ran out the door and down the halls.

 

  They hadn’t made it far before Business could be seen down the end of the hall. None of his robots were surrounding him this time. Unikitty skidded to a stop, nearly throwing Benny forward and off Bad Cop’s shoulders.

  “How many times must I have to take care of all of you?!” Business shouted. He looked towards Doris. “Stop freeing people, already, would you?!” He grumbled something and reached into his jacket. “I suppose I’ll just have to do everything myself.” He pulled a gun out and aimed it towards the five of them. Unikitty took a step back.

  “You’re going to shoot us?!” Doris shouted.

  “Not if you five come quietly.”   
  “YOU’RE SO MEAN!” Unikitty shouted, their fur growing a more red color.

  “All I wanted was to keep the citizens SAFE! But since you-”  
  Then, Unikitty began running towards him. Business protested and fired the gun at their feet, but to no avail. Unikitty went crashing into Business, sending him flying through the window behind him. The four people on their back jumped off and ran over to the broken window. Business didn’t make it to the ocean.

  Unikitty scoffed. “I didn’t want to have to do that but he was just so mean!” They stomped their paw for emphasis.

  They all stood in silence for a while.

  “Well,” Emmet started, turning towards Benny, “I think it’s time to get you home.”

  “I have a feeling there are some space shuttles being stored here. It’s all a matter of trying to find where they are-” Bad Cop started.

  “I would like to stay here.” Benny said suddenly. Emmet stared at him, wide-eyed.

  “Wait, really?”  
  “Yes! I enjoyed my time with you more than I ever did back home! I would… _prefer_ to stay!” Benny explained. The smile on Emmet’s face was the brightest thing any of them had seen in a week.

  “Mom! Please? Could he stay with us?” Emmet begged Doris. She thought a moment.

  “I don’t know, Emmet. I’d have to buy food for the both of you, not to mention, his needs are probably much different from yours.”

  “He doesn’t need to eat! Also, he doesn’t really need basic human needs either!”  
  Doris simply shared a look with Bad Cop. He simply nodded.

  “Alright, I suppose he could stay with us-”  
  Emmet and Benny’s cheers echoed through the building. Despite the fact they weren’t affected in this scenario, Unikitty cheered as well.

  


  The robots had all been deactivated on their way out, the tower’s power was shut off, Unikitty headed back home and Emmet fell asleep on Bad Cop’s back. With no way back home except for walking, it was nearly a day later before they made it back to Bricksburg. Benny received strange looks and the other three of them were rushed to the hospital after Bad Cop collapsed on the side of the street.

 

  Emmet woke up in a hospital bed, heart monitors echoing in his ears. He found himself in a room, beds to his left and right. To his left and right he saw Bad Cop and his mother asleep. In a chair in the corner of the room, he saw Benny playing with a bead maze in his lap. The only sounds he could hear were the heart monitors, beads clicking against each other, and Bad Cop’s gentle snoring. Not long after he woke up, a doctor came in to check on the patients.

  “Ah! Mr. Brickowski, you’re awake!” They said quietly, as to not wake up Bad Cop and Doris. They looked down at something on their clipboard.

  “Where are we?” Emmet asked, still groggy from sleep.

  “You’re in the Bricksburg Hospital, son. After your friend over there passed out on the side of the road, your mother called 911 and all three of you were worse for wear.”

  Emmet felt something grab his hand. He looked over to see Benny hovering beside him, holding his hand. “Hi, Benny…” he said. Benny took his free hand and formed it into a flower shape. Emmet looked in awe.

  “You never told me you could change your shape!”  
  “I am just now learning.”

  “That must be how you escaped the other day and got us out of there.”

  The doctor rubbed a thermometer over Emmet’s forehead. “Your temperature looks pretty normal, and everything looks okay. We’ll have you in here for a little while longer to recover from whatever you had experienced, okay?” Emmet nodded and they left the room. Benny gently climbed into the bed with Emmet and both of them slowly dozed off.

 

  “How long has he been sleeping?” A voice said. Emmet woke up again, hearing a conversation between… his mother and the doctor.

  “Not long, ma’am, he woke up just a little while ago and went back to sleep.”

  Emmet opened his eyes and saw Benny was hanging onto Doris’ shoulders this time instead of Bad Cop, who he saw sitting down behind them. He was the first one to notice that Emmet had woken up again.

  “Hey, Emmet.” Bad Cop said, except… it wasn’t Bad Cop.

  “Officer Gabriel?” Emmet asked.

  “That’s my name, don’ wear it out!” Good Cop said, smiling. “Sorry for up an’... y’know, ‘dyin’’ on you, Benny and Brendan.”

  Emmet found himself in an almost crushing hug from both Doris and Benny.

  “Sweetheart, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Doris said. Good Cop walked over to the bed and put his hand on Emmet’s shoulder as he was let go from the hug.

  “Th’ doctor’s lettin’ us go home today if we think we’re up t’ it. You want t’ go home today?” He asked. Emmet thought about it for a bit. Then he nodded.

  “Yeah. I think that’d be okay.”

  


  Several months had passed since then, and Benny was experiencing his first Spring. Emmet explained to him how all the animals come out of hibernation, flowers come up from the snow, and it’s really just… greener. Bad Cop and Good Cop weren’t really cops anymore, seeing as Business took away that position. They were okay with it, though, they didn’t exactly care about it that much anymore. Tucker and Robert, as well as everyone else at the precinct paid them visits occasionally. They were even able to find a new chief in time.

  As for Business, since he was gone now, people were able to find someone new for president. Who it was, Emmet, Benny, Gabriel and Brendan didn’t know. They just lived their lives like normal. The laws about the ‘otherworldly creatures’ was lifted, and soon there had been new creatures showing up and taking residence around Bricksburg, The Old West, and all the other places. As long as they didn’t cause too much trouble, they were free to roam around. Benny had started to live with Emmet and Doris and became somewhat of a brother to Emmet in time, even starting to call Doris his mother as well.

  Gabriel and Brendan were still recovering in their own way, Gabriel from ‘being killed’ as he put it, and Brendan from what was left when that occurred. The two brothers spent some time in the aftermath for themselves, Brendan even taking time to fill in on what Gabriel had missed. Gabriel even went to say that it had been ‘an amazing story to tell someone in the future.’ Brendan felt as though he preferred to keep it under wraps if he could.

  Emmet, on the other hand, had been enjoying his time with Benny, taking him to all the cool places downtown, telling him about Cool Earth Things, and even showing him how to find Batman over by the comic book store. Mr. V eventually began visiting the family in their own apartment from now on, seeing as the park bench had been broken. Not to mention the park was still nearing completion, so it was still closed up for another month anyway. Even Unikitty visited quite often, following Benny and Emmet around the city, seeing the sights that could be seen. Wyldstyle had eventually met Benny as well, although she was more… cautious around him. She was a bit nervous around these new creatures showing up, but she was doing her best to try and make friends with Benny anyway.

  As for Benny, well… he had been enjoying his time on Earth and had been planning to be staying for a long time. After all, he’s got a family that cares about him now.

  And he wouldn’t change it for all the stars in the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of Space Oddity ! I wanna take some time and say,, thank you guys so much for reading this fic, especially all the way to the end, it means so much to me. But that's not the end just yet! There's still lots more Space Oddity content on the way that I've been working on. As well as another project I'm planning for SO ;) Keep an eye out for future stuff !
> 
> You can check out more Space Oddity on my SO blog here https://lego-spaceoddity.tumblr.com/
> 
> Anyway thank you all so much for reading !! See you in the future! 8)


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